Supplements blamed for mass polo pony death

Defective food supplements are being blamed for the sudden death of 21 horses from internal bleeding at a recent international polo event in Florida.

A US pharmacy has admitted it botched the customized formulation it had been asked to make by a Venezuelan polo team to boost the health of its horses but which had a disastrously opposite effect.

The team had been accustomed to supplementing its horse’s diets with a multivitamin called Biodyl which doesn’t have Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, hence the request for a customized formulation that was meant to contain vitamin B, potassium, magnesium and selenium.

The pharmacy said, "the strength of an ingredient in the medication was incorrect."

Biodyl is manufactured in France by a US firm, Merial Ltd.