This paper records the meaning of the term 'offense' and the folk knowledge related to local beliefs and practices of folk medicine that prevent and treat snake bites, as well as the implications for the conservation of snakes in the county of Pedra Branca, Bahia State, Brazil. The data was recorded from September to November 2006 by means of open-ended interviews performed with 74 individuals ...

In this study, polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis and densitometry analysis methods were used to analyze venom extracts of Vipera xanthina specimens of different lengths (35, 47 and 88 cm) collected from the same locality. The electropherograms of the venom protein samples showed age-dependent qualitative and quantitative variations.

Snakebite envenomations occur in 45,000 patients in the USA annually and are associated with morbidity especially in children and the elderly. Crotalidae polyvalent immune fab (ovine; FabAV) is a polyvalent antivenom derived from sheep for crotalid envenomations. Limited clinical trials are available in paediatric patients. A literature search using MEDLINE (1950-February 2008), International P...

DNA sequences from 195 squamate reptiles indicate that mitochondrial gene order is the most reliable phylogenetic character establishing monophyly of acrodont lizards and of the snake families Boidae, Colubridae, and Viperidae. Gene order shows no evidence of evolutionary parallelisms or reversals in these taxa. Derived secondary structures of mitochondrial tRNAs also prove to be useful phyloge...

A new species of palm-pitviper of the genus Bothriechis is described from Refugio de Vida Silvestre Texíguat in northern Honduras. The new species differs from congeners by having 19 dorsal scale rows at midbody, a bright green dorsal coloration in adults, the prelacunal scale fused to the second supralabial, and in representing a northern lineage that is sister to Bothriechis lateralis, which ...

A monovalent antivenom was produced by immunizing two horses with venom of the pit viper Bothrops asper (Ophidia: Viperidae). Although development of the immune response against four toxic and enzymatic activities of the venom was similar in both horses during the first two thirds of the immunization schedule, antibody response in one of the horses reached much higher levels in the last part of...