title: Venom yield and its relationship with body size and fang separation of pit vipers from Argentina.
abstract: The amount of venom that a snake can inject is related to its body size. The body size is related to head size and to the distance between fangs. To correlate snake body size, distance between fangs and distance between puncture wounds with the venom yield (and consequently with the venom dose potentially injected in a single snakebite), we studied these variables in two species of public health importance in South America, Bothrops (Rhinocerophis) alternatus, and Crotalus durissus terrificus. In all cases a positive correlation was observed between body length, fang separation distance, distance between puncture wounds and venom yield, with a regression coefficient over 0.5 for Bothrops alternatus and over 0.6 for Crotalus durissus terrificus in all cases, being the relation distance between punctures wounds and venom yield of 0.54 and 0.69 respectively. The difference between fang separation and puncture separation was never greater than 30%, with a mean difference around 13%. The strong relationships between body size, fang separation and venom yield may be useful for planning potential venom production in serpentariums. In addition, because puncture mark separation gives an approximate idea of the size of the snake, this provides a rough idea of the size of the snake that produced a bite and the potential amount of venom that could have been injected.
authors.affiliation: First Cathedra of Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Research and Development Area, INPB-ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán", Ministry of Health, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: aderoodt@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Adolfo Rafael
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: de Roodt
authors.affiliation: VIPER Institute and Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Leslie Victoria
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Area, INPB-ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán", Ministry of Health, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Laura Cecilia
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lanari
authors.affiliation: Parasitology Department, INEI-ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán", Ministry of Health, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Irazu
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Area, INPB-ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán", Ministry of Health, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Rodrigo Daniel
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Laskowicz
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Area, INPB-ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán", Ministry of Health, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Paula Leticia
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Sabattini
authors.affiliation: First Cathedra of Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Carlos Fabián
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Damin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina; D049628:Body Size; D014757:Viper Venoms; D017819:Viperidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
chemical_list: D014757:Viper Venoms
keywords: Body size; Bothrops; Crotalus; Envenomation; Fangs; Snake; Snakebite; Venom yield