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What rattlesnake species are covered by crofab???
What rattlesnake species are NOT covered by crofab?
What snakes do they use to make crofab
are the snakes used to make crofab simliar enough to the other rattlesnakes no used to make crofab, that they would not be needed to produce the AV

Sorry for any poor wording and possible duplication of questioning

Crofab is only for use on North American crotalids. Any south or even central american crotalid should be treated with the Costa rican polyvalent (which is a miniscule fraction of the cost of Crofab). Some keepers have even suggested using the polyvalent for N.A. crotalid bites, because there are less side effects after treatment...

Cro-Fab is not that effective against the bites of the other members of the "durissus subgroup" ;molossus, basiliscus and horridus. The old Wyeths is said to be more effective for these species.

Why wouldn't they include all NA crotalids or at least those with a varying venom genetic amkeup then those used to produce the AV? Cost? Whats the point in having an AV that might not be all that effective against molussus or horridus etc

and by listing horridus I assume you mean horridus attriculatus as well as other sub species

it was a simple oversite. Cro-fab was designed with what were considered a combination of the hottest venoms and those most frequently seen in bite scenarios. It just wasn't forseen that it may not be all that effective against the durissus subgroup. You have to remember that it is still a fairly new product. You also have to take into consideration that it was designed for the U.S.A. C.basiliscus/totonacus/simus and durissus do not occur here and bites from molossus and horridus are very infrequent when compared to teh other species used in the production of Cro-Fab. I'm sure there have been some others, but I have personally only heard of two molossus bites in my 40 years of collecting/keeping. And one of those was some fool who lived near Tucson who kept a long term female molossus that he had been free handling for years. He was showing her off and handling her for a television crew when she went into a feeding reaction and got him good, hanging on and chewing in everything she had. The crew got great footage and pics though.

Are you saying that cro-fab is not effective against molossus, or just less effective?

that it is just less effective for that particular subgroup.

Bioclon works well on all NA pit vipers. I would use this over CR antisera for NA bites.
Crofab works on most NA but must be used in larger doses then some victims are recieving . This can be expensive.

Jim Harrison

Crofab is made from the venoms of 4 North American crotalids...

Western diamondback (Crotalus atrox)
Eastern diamondback (Crotalus adamanteus)
Mojave rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus)
cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus)