A captive breeding program for venomous Thai snakes was established at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute at Bangkok, Thailand. This was necessary to secure a stable, healthy, and species-confirmed source of snake venom for antivenom production. In 1994, wild-caught specimens were collected, sexed, quarantined, and housed appropriately. All data in this report, with the exclusion of Table 6,...

Standard methods of commercial antivenom production are costly both in terms of animals, their maintenance, the use of large amounts of expensive venoms and man-hours. The basic technology, which involves the hyperimmunization of horses, bleeding and subsequent purification of the plasma immunoglobulin G (IgG) using salt precipitation and pepsin digestion, has not advanced significantly for man...

Snakebite envenoming is a serious condition requiring medical attention and administration of antivenom. Current antivenoms are antibody preparations obtained from the plasma of animals immunised with whole venom(s) and contain antibodies against snake venom toxins, but also against other antigens. In order to better understand the molecular interactions between antivenom antibodies and epitope...

OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical features and laboratory findings in patients with definite red-bellied black snake (RBBS; Pseudechis porphyriacus) bites, including correlation with results of venom assays. DESIGN, PATIENTS AND SETTING Prospective cohort study of patients with definite RBBS bites, recruited to the Australian Snakebite Project from January 2002 to June 2010. MAIN OUTCOME M...

BACKGROUND Snakebites are a public health problem in Nicaragua: it is a tropical developing country, venomous snakes are present and there are reports of snakebites treated both in the formal and informal health care system. We aimed to produce an incidence map using data reported by the health care system that would be used to allocate resources. However, this map may suffer from case detectio...

alligator may be found in the southeastern United States, from North Carolina to Louisiana. The saltwater crocodile is found in Southeast Asia and Australia, with males reaching lengths of up to 23 feet (7 m). Victims of crocodilian attacks sustain trauma from a combination of penetrating, blunt, and sheer force. The saltwater crocodile can generate 2000 psi when it bites. The sheer magnitude o...

Scorpion stings and snake bites are major health hazards that lead to suffering of victims and high mortality. Thousands of injuries associated with such stings and bites of venomous animals occur every year worldwide. In North Africa, more than 100,000 scorpion stings and snake bites are reported annually. An appropriate determination of the 50% lethal doses (LD₅₀) of scorpion and snake venoms...

BACKGROUND Snake bite is a neglected public health problem in the world and one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in many areas, particularly in the rural tropics. It also poses substantial economic burdens on the snake bite victims due to treatment related expenditure and loss of productivity. An accurate estimate of the risk of snake bite is largely unknown for most countries in ...

The true global incidence of envenomations and their severity remain largely misunderstood, except for a few countries where these accidents are rare or are correctly reported. Nevertheless, this information is essential for drawing up guidelines for dealing with snake-bites, to plan drug supplies, particularly antivenin, and to train medical staff on snake-bite treatments. Since the comprehens...