>>Hi, I read a lot of bibliography of FWC's venom, and I saw the symptoms that can cause are serious.

Typically the symptoms are quire minor (localised pain and swelling) but more pronounced swelling has occured and at least one case of moderate neurotoxicity has been reported after a prolonged bite by a very large specimen. We can pretty much assume that this would be the full extent and that lethal envenomations are not something this species would be able to produce (allergic shock aside).

>>Besides I read that the venom is frequentely compared with WDB rattlesnake, and I'm wondering why (amount of venom, composition, hemotoxins, LD50...)
>>A bite from a Hydrodynastes gigas it can be as bad as a C. atrox venom, really?
>>

This is comparing the simple toxicity. This reinforces that this species is not likely to be able to produce serious envenomations as the lethal dose of Crotalus atrox is over 100 milligrams and H. gigas would take quite a bit of chewing to get even a couple milligrams in, with a maximum yield of 10-15 milligrams. We are working on the venom composition currently.

Cheers
Bryan
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Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
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Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
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Population and Evolutionary Genetics Unit,
Museum Victoria
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http://www.venomdoc.com

[ Hide Replies ]

• H. gigas venom like C. atrox venom - philodryasfan, Tue Sep 7 17:31:55 2004
• RE: H. gigas venom like C. atrox venom - bgf, Tue Sep 7 21:57:15 2004
• RE: H. gigas venom like C. atrox venom - PhilodryasFAN, Wed Sep 8 15:31:09 2004