Before dropping dead Sunday and early Monday, the Lechuza Caracas team's horses were injected with a generic lab-made version of a banned French vitamin supplement that contained sodium selenite, a selenium-based salt.

Citing anonymous sources, the Argentine newspaper La Nacion reported today that the horses' lab-made supplements included 5 milligrams per milliliter of sodium selenite instead of the prescribed 0.5 milligrams.

Investigators said Thursday they believed they had identified the chemical that killed the horses but declined to name it, raising the prospect that an announcement could come within days.

While they wait for answers, selenium was the buzz word in equine circles.

The chemical is necessary for animal and human health but veterinarians agree that too much selenium can kill.

"Horses need selenium. It's in their diet, said Dr. Eleanor Green, dean of Texas A&M University's veterinary college and past president of American Association of Equine Practitioners. "But in general selenium in high doses can be toxic."

Dr. Christie Ward, a veterinarian at the University of Minnesota, agreed that selenium "can be toxic when administered at too high a level."

The vitamin supplements were administered to the horses to increase their resistance to exhaustion, the team's captain told La Nacion.

But FDA officials and other experts say creating a made-to-order version of the supplement appeared to violate federal law because so-called compounding pharmacies are only allowed to reproduce drugs unavailable in the United States if they address a dire medical need in an animal.

"The pirated drugs can present a risk to horses because they don't go through the FDA approval process," Green said. "So there's no way to know for sure that it contains the right drug or the right amount of the drug."

Source: www.palmbeachpost.com

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