NEUTRALIZING ABILITY OF ANTIOPHIDIC SERA AGAINST THE VENOM OF BOTHROPS MOOJENI (LANCE-HEADED VIPER)

In the production of current therapeutic antisera used in Argentina fo r Bothrops snakebite, the Bothrops moojeni venom is not used as immuno gen, since this snake is not considered a serious public health proble m. Accidents caused by this species have not been reported in this cou ntry even though Bothrops moojeni is not unfrequent in some regions of Misiones. Despite the high degree of immunological cross reactivity f ound among the Crotalinae venoms and, in this particular case, among t he venoms from the Bothrops Genus, there exists a significant intraspe cific variation in venom composition, particularly in specimens arisin g from different geographic regions. In this study, the antivenoms pre pared at the Instituto Nacional de Produccion de Biologicos A.N.L.I.S. Dr. Carlos G. Malbran have been tested for their immunochemical cross reactivity and neutralizing ability of enzymatic and toxic activities of venom from Argentinian specimens of Bothrops moojeni from Misiones . Immunological cross-reactivity was tested by double-immunoprecipitat ion, immunoelectrophoresis, Western-blot and ELISA. Neutralizing abili ty of antivenoms against proteolytic, indirect hemolytic activity, pro coagulant activity. he-morrhagic activity and necrotizing activity. Th e Lethal Dose 50 was 1.5 mg/kg body weight. this value is located in t he range to those obtained with the venom from Brazilian specimens. It was observed that all the antivenoms exhibited a strong immunochemica l cross reactivity and that they were able to neutralize in different degree both, enzymatic and toxic activities of B. moojeni venom. From these results, it can be assumed that the antivenom tested could be em ployed successfully in cases of B. moojeni snakebites.