Posted by:
BGF
at Sun Dec 14 14:20:37 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by BGF ]
The toxicity of the venom is quite low, so much so that it would take over a hundred milligrams to kill. However, the typical adult would produce less than ten milligrams and due to the inefficiency of delivery, inject even less. The venom is rich in large enzymes that localised swelling. 3FTx (three-finger toxins) are also present in the venoms but in much lower quantities. In the most severe bite recorded, the victims arm swelled up quite a bit and there were some neurotoxic effects but the bite did not produce near-lethal symptoms. Thus, antivenom is not likely to be needed. The venom is quite similar to the American hognosed venoms (not entirely suprising since they are both in the Xenodontinae snake family, as compared to the Madagascar hognosed snakes which are in the Pseudoxyrhophiinae snake family, two utterly unrelated lineages). Download the LC/MS article from the publications section of my webpage. The link is below.
Cheers
B
Snake venom diversity
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
Deputy Director
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne
www.venomdoc.com
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RE: thanks for the reply... but still need more help - BGF, Sun Dec 14 14:20:37 2003