Florida polo pony mystery could take weeks to solve

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida investigators were trying to determine on Tuesday whether a crime was committed in the deaths of 21 polo ponies apparently killed by a mysterious toxin at the U.S. Open Polo Championship.

Results of necropsies on the dead horses could be known by Wednesday, but more detailed toxicology tests that might reveal if a poison killed the animals could take weeks, police said.

Medical officials and veterinarians who treated the dying horses suspect an adverse drug reaction or a toxin caused them to collapse with severe respiratory problems on Sunday at the International Polo Club of Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida.

The horses, valued at up to $100,000 each, belonged to the Lechuza Caracas polo team owned by millionaire Venezuelan businessman Victor Vargas, president of the Venezuelan Banking Association.

Law enforcement investigators from the Florida Department of Agriculture were involved in a probe of the incident, with help from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, the local police department.

"There's nothing to indicate criminal charges at this time. But it's a suspicious incident when that many horses die at once," said Sheriff's Office Captain Greg Richter said.

"We have ruled out that it's a virus or infection. It's probably some sort of toxin or pathogen," he said.

Department of Agriculture spokesman Terence McElroy said the probe was "not a full-blown criminal investigation" but an attempt "to determine if any laws were broken, whether any illegal substances were given to animals."

McElroy said there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing at this point. "We don't have any suspects or anything like that," he said.

Some of the horses were transported to a Florida Department of Agriculture lab in Kissimmee and the others were taken to the University of Florida's Veterinary School in Gainesville for necropsies.

Toxicology test results could take several weeks, Richter said.

"We're at a standstill until we get those back," he said.

Veterinarian Paul Wollenman of the Palm Beach Equine Clinic, the veterinary group that attended to the horses when they fell ill, said little was known about what killed them.

"We do know that based on overwhelming clinical evidence this event was isolated to the Lechuza barn horses and the initial evidence shows no infectious element," he said in a statement.

The horses died at an exclusive club for players of polo, known as the sport of kings, supported by jet-setters including Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire whose empire crumbled this year when U.S. authorities accused him of running a Ponzi scheme.

Stanford was a sponsor of the International Polo Club, which caters to the elite of nearby Palm Beach, the wealthy east coast beach town where two private homes recently sold for more than $75 million each.

The United States Polo Association called the deaths of the horses unprecedented.

"We all mourn the loss of these horses," executive director Peter Rizzo said. "There are no words to describe the grief and sadness shared by everyone -- particularly the devastated owners of those magnificent horses."

The Lechuza Caracas team withdrew from the championship following the deaths.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Todd Eastham)