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What is the lethel dose of venom from an aveage Crotalidae to the average sized man in an amount I can understand 1 Drop, 10 Drops?
Graham434

Many other factors come into play when it comes to the severity of an envenomation too.

such as corticosterone, and other hormones released from the pituitary gland during the "fight or flight" response. It wouldnt be as simple as the volume injected. Or am I way off here?

-Michelle

Snakes can't control the concentration of their venom, they can control how much is injected though. Half of all bites are considered "dry", with little or no venom.

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They don't control it dynamically but there ontogenetic changes in specific protein constituents, that will change the toxic properties over time.

There are articles out there, for bushmasters in particular, that have studied this. As newborns, the toxic properties are not there but within several months, the changes occur and the animals are very toxic(to humans anyway).

MH

that's not the same as the snake having the ability to control the concentration of it's venom.

right, but I wouldn't say that they couldn't fluctuate. I just don't think it's ever really been studied.

If hormonal levels in people can change the levels of adrenalin, I suppose it's possible that various components of venom could vary. And even if it's a slight change in one component, it may not be a 1-to-1 effect on venom toxicity.

It could be tested simply(well nothing's ever simple) but venom samples from snakes at rest versus those with agitated snakes (both with prey nearby for the "naturally agitated" snake and with a person near it for "defensively agitated" snake. Sample it as many times as necessary to get a statistically reliable sample and see what it reveals.

Simply put, I think it's a complex area that's not been investigated fully. Think about the ramifications if it was discovered that snakes COULD in fact control component release(or even if they can't control it...just seeing that various states of excitement cause changes in the components)....man, it means that these animals are EVEN MORE advanced than previously thought. It wouldn't surprise me.

it would make ld50 charts pointless...

I was just wondering if it could fluctuate, but by no means was trying to infer that the snake could control it(like a dimmer switch). I had thought that I heard of fluctuations in concentration in direct coorelation to sress levels..not sure where I heard that. Thats why I mentioned Corticosterone.

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