NEUTRALIZATION OF BEE VENOM LETHALITY BY IMMUNE SERUM ANTIBODIES

The lethal effects of Africanized honey bee venom depend on the absorp tion of venom delivered during simultaneous sting attacks by large num bers of bees. The hypothesis that antibodies to whole bee venom and be e venom components could neutralize the lethal effect of bee venom was tested. Antibodies from beekeepers and immunized rabbits were incubat ed with bee venom and neutralization was studied by survival of intrav enously injected mice. Beekeeper serum antibodies were found effective in protecting mice challenged with whole venom, and serum from rabbit s immunized with phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) was effective in protecti on against lethal effects of PLA(2). Serum antibodies from rabbits imm unized with whole venom or melittin were ineffective in neutralizing w hole venom in vivo and had low titers in a venom enzyme-linked immunos orbent assay. The results suggest the need for development of more eff ective methods for raising antitoxic antibodies to bee venom component s in other animals as a means of developing an antiserum that would be effective for treatment of human victims of multiple bee stings.