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King cobra species?
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by JeremyTMoore on April 27, 2007
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What species of King Cobras (Ophiophagus sp) are there availible in the hobby? I know theres Burmese Kings, Malaysian Kings, Javanese etc. But could anyone gimme a list?
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RE: King cobra species?
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by LarryDFishel on April 27, 2007
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The precise answer to the question is "one". There is currently only one recognized species of King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) and no recognized subspecies. I've heard occasional rumors that a change may be in the works, but I have no real info.
The varieties you mentioned are different "localities", not species. Other localities that I've seen are Indonesian, Thai and Chinese off the top of my head. I don't know if there are any Indian or Vietnamese Kings in this country, but I would assume there probably are, but maybe not for sale...
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RE: King cobra species?
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by Phobos on April 27, 2007
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Gee.. I thought your were seriously discredited from your last series of posts. I would not help you find a Dekays snake no less seriously hot Mambas or Kings.
Al
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RE: King cobra species?
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by JHarrison on April 28, 2007
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Larry is right there is one species right now. But DNA work may yield several species (not subspecies).
Venom also appears to be very different in these animals.
Jim Harrison
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RE: King cobra species?
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by Atrox788 on April 30, 2007
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Ophiohagus venom is a bit strange. I have always heard (and please correct me if I'm wrong Jim) that Notechis AV works better on most King bites then monovalents for the species!
I guess it boils down to matching up your king with local specific AVs. Meaning if you have a king from China (don’t I wish :p) then Chinese Opihohagus av would be needed to neutralize a bite. (Again, I am assuming that this is the reason some say Notechis AV is bettere so please correct me if I am wrong)
In any case I eagerly await the taxon update on this genus. Whenever you have a species which has so many secluded locals I think it’s inevitable that there will be more then one species.
Interesting stuff!
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RE: King cobra species?
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by JHarrison on April 30, 2007
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The paper that started the Notechis AV for Ophiophagus bites was written by Sherman Minton, and I was involved with the venom supply for this project (some of it) and so had some discussion with Dr. Minton about the paper. I am going to break this down into points so I don't leave something out.
1. Dr. Minton did *not* mean to imply that Notechis AV was better than the specific king AV. The paper was meant as an interesting discussion about cross-reactivity, and also to note that trying Nothechis AV if no king was available on a bite might be better than not giving any AV at all.
2. The Notechis AV will not neutralize the haemmoragic factors in the king venom. So you could still bleed out.
3. The Australian AVs are not made the same today as they were when that paper was published, so the entire point of possible cross-reactivity may be moot at this time. No further study has been done.
Most snakebite experts agree that the specific AV is always the best bet. The only time to use some other AV is if the specific is unavailable, and trying something may be worth a shot if it's that or death.
Much more work really should be done on antivenoms and their efficacy, but there are so many difficulties involved (ie. scarcity of bites, lack of info about species responsible for a given bite, remoteness of many victims, and also using a non-approved AV on a human) that the studies are few and far between, and usually do not use human subjects.
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