Agkistrodon - Venom

Venom

Pit vipers of the genus Agkistrodon rely on a potent venom they produce for their survival. Used to immobilize prey and fend off predators, one bite can inject enough venom into a human to cause severe pain, swelling, weakness, difficulty breathing, hemorrhaging, gangrene, fever, vomiting, and in rare instances, even death. When concentrations are controlled, however, traditional Chinese medicine has discovered a clinical use for certain species’ venom. Today, this correlation has spread to modern research on the effects of snake venom in cancer patients and victims of strokes.

It is assumed that the venom of all three species is not unlike that of A. contortrix, which contains thrombin-like enzymes that act upon the coagulant activity of the blood. A study of electrophoretic patterns of proteins in venoms among and within populations of A. contortrix and A. piscivorus showed that substantial variation exists (Jones, 1976), and there is no reason to believe that these differences do not correspond with variations in toxicity.