How Is Antivenom Made?

With over 5.4million snake bites around the globe anually, antivenom saves countless lives every year. In this video we dicuss the history of Antivenom and how its made
The first recorded use of Antivenom was in Vietnam in the 1880s. French immunologist Albert Calmette was working in Saigon vaccinating local people for small pox and rabies when he noticed how many people where being killed by Indian cobras. Using his understanding on immunology and antibodies he deviced the first Antivenom by injecting horses with non lethal doses of cobra venom until the horses displayed a resistance to the venom, then he extracted blood from the horses containing the venom fighting antibodies. This method works so well it’s been more or less unchanged ever since.
Today horses are injected with venom different species of snakes and after several months 10 litres of blood is taken. These days the blood is passed through an a machine which seperate some the red blood cells from the plasma and antibodies before returning them back to the horse. The plasma is then refined and that is Antivenom. Unfortunately Antivenom is usually species specific or treats only several closely related species which is perfect for places where snake identification is possible.
Universal antivenins called polyvalent are made by combining the antibodies of several snake venoms into one product, for example in australia out polyvalent Antivenom is made up of black snake Antivenom, tiger snake Antivenom, brownsnake, taipan and death adder Antivenom. Indian polyvalent on the other hand treats Indian cobra venom, russels viper and saw snake viper bites and common Krait
Universal Antivenom is ideal when snakes can’t be identified of hospitals cannot keep many specific antivenoms but generally require much higher doses.
While today the World Health Organization used the word Antivenom many people still refer to Antivenom and antivenin, a word which originally came from Albert Calmette being French and venin ring French for venom meaning they mean the exact same thing
Wether you call it antivenin or Antivenom this product saves countless lives every year. Globally it’s estimated 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes annually with 80,099 - 150,000 deaths which would be dramatically higher without the invention of Antivenom
In australia our tiger snake and death added bites killed more then half of victims before Antivenom was available and taipan bites had a 100% mortality
Thanks to calmetes work we can now live much more safely with these incredible reptiles

[WannonCreekWildlife]

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[TheWildlifeBrothers]

This was fascinating Nick, a bit of zoological medicine that I didn’t know. We can always count on you and your videos to learn lots of new stuff! Cheers!
- Evan and Harrison

[squivm]

I always enjoy your videos and the way you present them, as always, Excellent!!!

[Spacey]

What a gorgeous tiger snake. Amazing head & face, really lovely. Don't need much antivenom for UK snakes lol I wondered why you called it antivenin, now I know. Thank you Nick great video again 😊

[Gottalovecarpetpythons]

It is amazing that it came about and produced and it continues to save lives everyday thank you Albert Calmetts

[space_oddyessy]

Interesting... I always wondered how vaccines and antivenom work.

[ecclestonsangel]

Thank you, Nick! I was always curious as to how antivenom was made. We have plenty of deadly snakes here in America, especially in the South, like the Cottonmouth, the Coral, and the Diamondback Rattler.
My elder bother was a ratbag when we were kids! He found a dead snake and chased my sister and me around the neighbourhood with it when he was six, I was five, and my sister barely two! Of course, we didn't know it was dead. So, I've a horrific fear of snakes, or ophidiophobia, because of my brother.(THERE'S your word for the day) I'm even frightened of the little garden snakes! It's probably just as well, because then I give them all a wide berth!
My friend Katrina Jeffrey at Koala Gardens at Tuckurimba in NSW received a new visitor yesterday. A young koala male showed up on her property! He's pudgy, dry bottomed and has healthy sparkly eyes, which is an excellent sign that he's very healthy. We've named him Ash, and hope he's going to stay awhile!☺
Let me know in advance when you're going to do another koala video, and I'll share with all my friends at Koala Gardens! I'm sure they'll enjoy your videos as much as I do, Nick.
Apologies for the lengthiness of this epistle. Sometimes when I get excited, I tend to witter on. Your friend in America, Val☺

[DaveWhoa]

a couple months ago a tiger snake bit all 4 of my sisters dogs. 1 didn't make it, but the other 3 survived thanks to antivenom
[edit] btw I have no hard feelings against the tiger snake ... it was just defending itself against four dogs! Mother Nature, and the roll of the dice ...

[BubblesAndLife]

Found you on, YouTube Vloggers and content creators Australia, Great video, smashed that like button Subbed, supporting Aussie Youtubers, we need all the support we can get.

[garrymcgaw]

That was a great vid Nick, real informative plus that was one quiet tiger, very well mannered. Stay healthy mate.

[jimmyshrimbe]

Wow! This is really interesting. Thanks!

[djsonfire]

I like you're knowledgeable videos these are very cool

[sharonkaczorowski]

MyDad, back in the 1930s caught rattlesnakes (don’t remember the species) for the scientist who developed rattlesnake antivenin. He also helped milk them. He father taught me how to handle snakes and to respect an love them. Before I became disabled I used that knowledge to move rattlers to safe places where humans would nit run them over or kill them. Rattlers are easy to move.., they are scared of people. I started with my hands and then moved to a stick..

[truthseeker]

Thank you so much for this video - I found the information so interesting! I immediately had to google Albert Calmette and read in awe what he did for humankind. Not only did he invent antivenin but he also developed the first vaccine against tuberculosis and the first serum against the black death.
An incredible man - it´s really worth reading his lifestory! He definitely should be much more famous than he is. For me he is much more a scientific hero than Albert Einstein, his ideas have probably been saving a million lives during the last 140 years!

[rowansheppard]

Question, when adminstering anti venom how long does it take for the effects to start working?

Do you still show symptoms of the snake bite?

[joshalan]

That's really interesting. I always wanted to know the process of making antigenic; thanks for the summary. Also, is the Tiger Snake an Austrailian breed of Cobra or is it just a closely related species?

[AAAA-vufp]

Can one purchase anivenin to use if camping in case of snakes

[Boomer]

How we get the various antivens, as in do we use one (1) horse for example and inject the venom from our top four snakes? or do we simply mix it all together prior to injection?

[Dingosimon]

I am thinking to myself, laying on the ground with a poisonous snake, I'm waiting for you to do a superman jump upwards when it got close to you>
Now I am re watching it to see when it had a go at you, ahhaah that's awful isn't it ?

[thenextbondvillainklaussch]

Well it saved my Dog. She got bit 3 times we think (by a Eastern Brown snake), 2 on the leg, and one on the tounge (maybe she shouldnt have bit its head), she just went stiff then limp in about 2 minutes as i was checking for bite marks (after i immobilized the snake) I thought she was a goner, but 2 shots of anti-venom, and she pulled through, thank God.
I also learned that Eastern Browns venom stop your blood from cloting, so her tounge and leg marks just bled and bled.