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It's all relative
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by TomT on June 9, 2003
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Mail this to a friend!
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When trying to read the ld50(s) for a given snake venom, it is most important to remember that these figures apply to mice, not men.
If you look at the various charts, you will notice that the venom is "rated" on four different scales:
1) subcutaneous, meaning the venom was injected under the skin.
2) intra-muscular, meaning the venom was injected into muscle tissue.
3) Intra-venous, meaning the venom was injected into a vein.
4) Intra-peritoneal, meaning the venom was injected into the body cavity (heart, lung, liver, intestinal area).
The resulting values are recorded in mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram) of body weight. The smaller the number, the more potent the venom, drop per drop... sort of.
Let's look at an example:
A. c. contortrix (Southern copperhead) has been tested to have a ld50 (50% of all mice injected with the following amounts of venom, died)
25.6 mg/kg subcutaneous 10.9 intra-venous
with an average yield (amount of venom per milking) of 40.0-75.0 mgs. dry weight.
What does this all mean? It means that if a mouse seighed 1 kilogram (BIG MOUSE!) that it would take 25.6 mgs. of copperhead venom to kill 50% of the 1 kilogram in weight mice that it bites. 50% would survive... 50% would die, on average, and the snake has about two times that many bites in him. So, when trying to extrapolate the data to human beings, what this means is.... if you're a healthy human being with NO ALERGIES to the venom, you probably won't die if a copperhead bites you. If you're a mouse, you're in deep trouble....
I'd be happy to continue this discussion over email.
Tom Townsend
Check this web page for more information:
http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/net12980/ld50tot.html
And of course, this one:
http://www.kingsnake.com/toxinology/
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