Heterologous Antivenin in Neutralization of North American Coral Snake Venom

Abstract

NEUTRALIZATION of heterologous venoms by snake antivenins is well known.The im¬ portance of this paraspecific action in antivenin production has been discussed by Criley (1) and Grasset (2).It has also been shown, most recently *by Keegan and Yoshino (3), that the relationship of snake species involved is not always a practical basis for accurate prediction of neutralization.Actual performance of a neutralization test or use of the antivenin in therapy are the only sure methods of determin¬ ing whether paraspecificity exists.Presented here are results of neutralization tests conducted to determine whether an anti¬ venin produced with venom of a South Ameri¬ can snake of genus Micrurus would neutralize venom of the North American coral snake, Micrurus fuhius fulvius (Linnaeus, 1766).Although Shannon (^), and undoubtedly many others, speculated as to whether such neutrali¬ zation would take place, test results to support such speculation have never been published.