antivenom production?

[rwg]

Hello,

I'm curious about how antivenom is produced. Can anyone point me at any web sites or papers describing the process?

rg

[cantil]

Don't know any websites offhand, should be able to find them on a search engine though. The gist of antivenin production though is that a horse is injected with increasingly large doses of venom until it developes antibodies which provide it with an immunity to the venom and as such could survive an otherwise lethal bite. At this point the blood is extracted from the horse the antibodies purified and hence anitvenin. This is also why people with horse allergies cannot receive antivenin.

I'm pretty sure thats all correct but you might want to ask Dr. Fry

[Pontus]

small amounts of venom are given to horses over a time and then blood is drained from them and i forget what part of the blood is sperated and thats the basics behind it

[Pontus]

lol yea beat me to it cantil grrrr lol and with more info

[BWSmith]

Sheep are used in CroFab. But that is a good summary.

[Mustangrde1]

I am afraid of the responce Ray will have to this but I am sure as soon as he see's this post or Dr Fry either of them can give a very good and detailed account on how it is produced. My limited knowledge is in the gathering of the raw venom from watching Ray. Takes a lot of skill, guts and luck to get that part of the production.