Some physiological characteristics of horses allow the production of antidotes from these animals to be administered to humans. This process, which involves horses and snakes and consists of many steps, is actually quite dangerous.
So how exactly does it happen that a horse can produce an antidote to humans against snake bites?
The first step of this process begins with removing the venom from the snakes.
The snake handler carefully removes the snake from its shelter and presses the animal’s head down with a real disc to minimize the risk of being bitten.
The disc used to press the head is transparent so that the trainer can see exactly where the snake’s head is. Once the animal’s head is somehow secured, the snake is placed in a small empty glass and thus allowed to release the poison into this glass.
The snake that releases the poison carries out this process because it believes that it has bitten the trainer.
The amount of this poison released is enough to kill approximately 50 people. The venom of some snake species is more dangerous and can cause the death of more than 100 people.
Again, this poison can take on various colors specific to each snake. For example, the Taipan snake’s venom is pink, the King Brown’s is dark yellow, and the Tiger snake’s venom is light yellow.
Subsequently, the poison trapped in the glass is freeze-dried at -56 degrees so that the moisture can be drawn out and preserved for a longer period of time.
Horses come into play after this point.
Horses have been of vital importance in terms of antidote formation since the 1800s. Because their bodies have biological similarities with humans and develop natural antibodies to fight the venom of snakes. Also, the healthier the horse, the more antidote it can produce.
These animals have enough blood to produce large amounts of antibodies for antidote and can quickly fill a blood bag. During this process, horses are injected with a small amount of poison and their blood is taken every two weeks.
The plasma is then separated from this blood, the antibodies are extracted from the plasma and finally the antidote is now ready to be given to people who have been exposed to snake bites.
However, developing this antidote is quite costly and since this process, which starts with snakes, is quite dangerous, scientists continue to look for ways to develop an antidote without horses in order to reduce these costs and prevent poisoning from possible snake bites.
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