Antivenom is considered an effective antidote for snakebite victims. So far, researchers have produced many effective serums for poisonous snakes such as king cobra, scorpion, red-tailed green…
However, the process of producing them is something not everyone knows. Including the “work” of an organism that plays an important role in the production of specific serums: Horses.
What is serum?
Anti-venom serum contains globulins capable of neutralizing snake venom, but before the serum is available, manufacturers will have to inject snake venom into healthy animals such as sheep, horses or mules, in which the main horse. is the animal used mainly to do this.
Besides we also need to better understand the venom of snakes, there are many species of venomous snakes (600 species out of a total of 3,500 known species globally) and each type will have a different mechanism of toxicity such as venom neurotoxin or hemotoxin…
The process of producing serum from horse blood
First, the researchers will inject an appropriate dose of snake venom into the horse’s body so that the horse produces antibodies against that antigen. After that, people will draw blood at the rate of 1.5% of the horse’s body weight to purify the serum.
How many types are there?
That’s why, to treat venomous snake bites, doctors need to know which snake it is so that they can use a specific serum:
There are two types of serum: monovalent serum (only used for one venomous snake species, used when the snake’s identity has been identified) and polyvalent serum (can be used for many different venomous snake species, often used when Not sure what kind of snake it is.)
Therefore, in the production process, depending on the purpose, people will inject one or more different types of snake venom into the horse. When horses are injected with these venoms into the body and create an immune mechanism to the venom, we obtain antivenom serum after extracting from horse blood.
This antidote serum will have 2 forms: Liquid form will be stored in glass jars at a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius without freezing; The dry form can be stored longer but is more expensive and must be dissolved when used, not immediately used.
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Video source: Wild Zilla
