Venom Yield and Toxicities of Six Egyptian Snakes with a Description of a Procedure for Estimating the Amount of Venom Ejected by a Single Snake Bite

(Abdel Aal and Ahmed Abdel-Basit *)

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Abstract

The venom yield, body length and toxicity of six Egyptian poisonous snakes (Naja haje, Naja nigricollis, Cerastes cerastes, Cerastes vipera, Cerastes cerastes cerastes and Echis carinatus) were studied. The percentage of dry weights of these venoms were 17.1-38.2 % that of the wet weight. The LD50 (i.p.) of the six venoms were 0.495, 1.670, 0.950, 0.625, 1.350 and 0.920 mg/kg mice respectively. A procedure for estimation of the venom ejected by a single bite of Naja haje or Cerastes cerastes is described. There was a correlation between the snake body length and the amount of venom ejected by a single bite or that milked from each snake. The percentage of recovery of Naja haje and Cerastes cerastes venom, injected manually in rabbit muscles, was 68.1 and 97.5 %. From the recovery of the snake venom, the amount of the venom ejected by a single bite was estimated. This procedure may be helpful for determining the dose of the specific antivenin.
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