Polo Captain- Vitamin supplement killed 21 ponies

[tomm2thumbs]

Source: Miami Herald

The 21 polo ponies that died in Wellington Sunday were all injected before the game with a vitamin supplement called Biodyl -- and team members believe a tainted dose caused their deaths, the team's captain said.

Juan Martin Nero, captain of the Lechuza Caracas polo team, told the La Nacion newspaper in Buenos Aires that all of the horses had received Biodyl injections before the game.

''We don't have any doubts about the origin of the problem,'' Nero said. ``There were five horses that weren't given the vitamin and they are the only ones that are fine.''

<snip>

Dr. Scott Swerdlin, a veterinarian at the Palm Beach Equine Club who helped treat the animals as they were dying, told the Post that Biodyl is not approved for use or sale in the United States.

<snip>

''It's dangerous,'' Kentucky-based veterinarian Fernando Garcia told La Nacion. 'Ordering it from France isn't an easy task because you have to specify what its use will be and in what animal. In the case of the polo ponies' deaths, I don't think it was Biodyl but it could have been an imitation.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/466/story/1012081.html

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given the fact that the ones not-injected were fine, sounds like mystery solved

[Taverner]

1. And Glenn Beck was blaming this on animal rights activists...

[tomm2thumbs]

2. did he really do that? omg -

as if he could look even more stupid - guess he's going for the record

[HopeHoops]

3. He couldn't look more stupid if...

... he wore a rubber ass on his head and sang "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" while picking his nose.

[flvegan]

8. We are the "terrorists du jour"

[Ian David]

14. Now he can blame it on the French, who he probably also hates. n/t

[Magleetis]

4. Proper training and diet

isn't enough? I don't understand why it is necessary to inject them with anything.

[flvegan]

6. It's a performance enhancer.

Not a steroid so to speak, but a performance enhancer nonetheless. Bodybuilders have taken this for years. It's also prevalent in dogfighting and cockfighting.

[RedCloud]

5. Some anti Chavista DUers need their comeuppance

Get your butts over here and apologize for blaming their deaths on Chávez. Next time stop knee jerk reacting like wing nuts do!

[bitchkitty]

7. You won't see them.

In fact, a year or two from now, they'll dig this up to illustrate how horrible is Chavez.

[Codeine]

12. What about the Chavistas who blamed it on Hugo's opposition?

Will they also be expected to apologize? Will they be called to task for their wing-nut-like knee-jerk reactions?

Anybody who thought this was political pretty much had their heads straight up their asses anyway.

[Sultana]

13. LOL, crazies

[Kali]

15. I'm not one, but if someone chose to believe in a conspiracy

then why couldn't the "evildoer" have poisoned the product that was used?

[jmowreader]

9. What Biodyl is...

According to http://www.cababstractsplus.org/abstracts/Abstract.aspx?AcNo=19842245910, this product contains

100mg sodium selenite,
50mg cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12),
1.5g magnesium asparaginate,
1g potassium asparaginate,
1g DNA and
0.1g adenosine triphosphoric acid

in 100ml solution.

The article I posted talks about using it in young lambs living in flocks susceptible to muscular dystrophy, and in lambs it prevents muscular dystrophy and corrects subnormal blood selenium. That vet's comment about needing to tell the people in France what you want it for is bullshit--I have a European ag supply's webpage up to "biodyl" and they sell one kind of it, giving you dosing information for whatever you're going to use it in. Horses get 20ml every 4-5 days via "slow intravenous injection" and no more than four or five injections of it.

I also figured out WHY this product is not approved in the US, and it's not because it's dangerous. Google "biodyl" and you will find three categories of links: stories about the Palm Beach polo pony deaths, people who use anabolic steroids--Biodyl treats muscle disorders, so that makes sense--and cockfighters in the Philippines. Two of the most prominent uses for a product are illegal? Nope, we don't need any of that around...even though it's one of those things that, when properly used, seems to be good.

Since Biodyl is expensive as hell--farmamondo.com will sell you 250ml for $66.37, 75 Swiss francs or 50 Euro--they probably made their own and fucked up. My bet is too much potassium--one gram isn't much, and too much will screw with the heart's conduction and cause death. It is so effective at doing that, they use it in the standard execution protocol. And since potassium asparaginate looks like it would be hard to get, they probably used a different potassium compound that contained more potassium than the asparaginate.

[doodadem]

11. Good analysis! Thanks

I am unfamiliar with this drug, thanks for the info.

[Kali]

16. good work, there

:thumbsup:

[jody]

10. Hilarious, the wild, hysterical speculation by some DUers about evil plots behind the tragedy. n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. Indeed, the anti-Chavez loons were all over this.

But I doubt that's what you had in mind.

[Rhiannon12866]

17. K&R. Dear God, poor horses...

;(