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Nature Notes      April

How antivenin is made:

First, the venom is extracted from a live snake (this is called milking). Generally, someone really brave (and fast!) grabs the snake behind the head and holds its mouth over a glass. The snake releases venom from its fangs, which are draped over the lip of the cup. The venom is collected in the glass below. Once enough venom has been extracted, it is bottled, and sent off to a lab.

At the lab, a horse or sheep is injected with 1/10th to 1/100th the lethal dose of venom. Over a period of several weeks, the animal is injected with increasingly potent doses of venom. By the end of about 3 months, the animal is receiving doses several times stronger than a lethal dose. Meanwhile, the animal's body is producing antibodies, which are proteins made by the body to fight foreign substances (such as venom). When you are sick, you may go to the doctor to receive antibiotics - these work the same way. Most of the time, your body actually produces its own antibodies to fight off viruses. That's why most people only get chicken pox once. After the first time, antibodies that "remember" the virus kick in and fight invading germs.

Scientists at the lab withdraw blood from the animal. The blood samples are then centrifuged. This is a really cool process where the container of blood is spun around very fast (in a machine, not in your hands!). When the blood spins, the white blood cells separate from the red blood cells. The white blood cells, collectively called serum, actually contain the antibodies to the venom. This serum is then bottled up and sent off to hospitals. 

If you are ever bitten by a venomous snake in Kentucky, the hospital will give you antivenin to counteract the venom in your body. Because all of our venomous snakes are so similar (all are pit vipers), there is actually only one type of antivenin used in this state. Therefore, it is NEVER necessary to bring in the snake that bit you. The treatment is the same for all of them. It is important to first have the doctor test you with a very small dose of antivenin. Some people react badly to antibodies that came from another animal, and there are cases where people have died from the treatment rather than from the snakebite.

*This information compiled from Venomous Reptiles by Sherman A. Minton, Jr. and Madge Rutherford Minton and from Joy's college knowledge