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"Venomous" Bites from "Non-Venomous" Snakes

  • 2nd Edition - August 10, 2022
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Scott A Weinstein, David A. Warrell, Daniel E Keyler
  • Language: English

"Venomous" Bites from "Non-Venomous" Snakes, Second Edition thoroughly examines the potential hazards associated with bites by non-front-fanged snakes (popularly, but inaccurat… Read more

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Description

"Venomous" Bites from "Non-Venomous" Snakes, Second Edition thoroughly examines the potential hazards associated with bites by non-front-fanged snakes (popularly, but inaccurately, called "rear-fanged snakes"). This diverse group contains approximately 80% of living snake species (approximately 2,900 species). A large proportion of these snakes were previously assigned to the family Colubridae but, as a consequence of expanding systematics investigations, have been split into multiple families and subfamilies. Many of these snakes produce venoms or oral secretions that contain toxins and other biologically active substances. A large variety of non–front-fanged snakes figure in the pet industry, yet little documented information or formal study of their potential medical importance has been published. Therefore, although the possible medical importance of many of these species has been subjected to speculation since the mid-19th century, there is a limited amount of useful descriptive information regarding the real hazard (or lack thereof) of this wide variety of snakes.

The first edition of this book provided "one-stop shopping" by offering information regarding their possible toxicity and clinical relevance as well as recommendations for medical management of their bites. The second edition expands and updates the content with detailed information about the effects and medical management of bites by a broad representation of non–front-fanged species. The hypothetical venomous nature of some lizards considered as non-venomous such as the Komodo monitor or dragon and their allies, as well as the medical effects of their bites, is also examined. The dynamic taxonomy of advanced snakes is updated, and the bases for some of these fluid changes are discussed. Likewise, terminology is also updated in order to reflect the ongoing debates regarding the definition of "venom" and the balanced reinforcement of nonmedical criteria used to define the biological basis of the term "venomous."

Key features

  • Fills a gap in toxicological, medical, and herpetological literature by providing a comprehensive review of this entire assemblage of non–front-fanged snakes, with particular attention given to their capacity to cause harm to humans
  • Offers a patient-centered, evidence-based approach which is applied to analyzing documented case reports of bites inflicted by a broad representation of species
  • Provides expanded and updated detailed information on the clinical management of medically significant bites from non–front-fanged snakes, which is also methodically reviewed, and specific recommendations are provided
  • Includes updates of the fluid taxonomy of advanced snakes and also of terminology with particular regard to the definition of "venom" and the nonmedical criteria used to define the biological basis of the "venomous condition" in snakes and lizards

Readership

Toxinologists; toxicologists; physicians; herpetologists; allied health personnel; public health professionals; natural historians; interested snake enthusiasts/private collectors

Table of contents

About the authors

Foreword

Preface to the second edition

Acknowledgments for the second edition

Introduction

Chapter 1 A summary of taxing taxonomic considerations: non-front-fanged snakes and the shifting sands of systematics

1.1: The shifting sands of taxonomic reassignments and their relevance to the envenomed patient

1.2 Brief glimpses of a vast landscape: the basics of taxonomic reassignments and discordance of morphological and molecular systematics investigations

1.3 Outlined inventory of a recent higher phylogeny of Caenophidian snakes

1.3.1 Classification

1.4 General phylogenetic inventory of Caenophidian snakes: comments and consideration of known medical significance

Chapter 2 Differences between buccal gland secretion and associated venom delivery systems of front-fanged snakes and non-front-fanged snakes: Low- versus high-pressure gland function and canaliculated versus solid dentition

2.1 Basic considerations regarding gland structure and function

2.2 Overview of hypotheses for the evolution of venom-delivery systems and other adaptive gland functions

2.3 Theories considering the evolution of canaliculated fangs and enlarged grooved teeth

2.4 Low-pressure ‘Duvernoy’s glands’ and high-pressure venom glands: a question of semantics?

Chapter 3 A brief overview of the history of non-front-fanged snake venom research

3.1 Background and beginnings

3.2 The modern era: advances and attributions

3.3 A brief overview of major classes of non-front-fanged colubroid venom components

3.3.1 Three-finger-fold toxins (3-FFTXs)

3.3.2 Cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRiSPs)

3.3.3 Snake venom metalloproteases (SVMPs), matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), and snake venom serine proteases (SVSPs)

3.3.4 Phospholipases A2 and B (PLA2 and PLB)

3.3.5 ‘Other’ components

3.3.6 A comment on the hypothesized assignment of snake venom toxins to clinical effects of envenoming: causality and strength of association

3.3.7 Illumination of biological function: prey-specificity and research trends

3.3.8 Immunology of non-front-fanged snake venoms

3.3.9 Commercial antivenoms against medically important elapids and viperids: possible use for envenoming by non-front-fanged snakes; utility or futility?

3.3.10 Future research

Chapter 4 Medically significant bites by non-front-fanged snakes (NFFCs)

4.1 Typical features of documented cases and evidence-based risk

4.1.1 Published and communicated or managed cases of medically significant non-front-fanged colubroid bites: summaries and strength of evidence

4.1.2 Epidemiology of bites from non-front-fanged snakes

4.1.3 Circumstances associated with species capable of inflicting life-threatening envenoming

4.2 Some representative genera: typical features of bites and an overview of their natural history and toxinology

Colubridae, Ahaetuliinae

4.2.1 Genus Chrysopelea (Boie, 1826): background and general features of documented bites

Colubridae, Colubrinae

4.2.2 Genera Boiga (Fitzinger, 1826), and Toxicodryas (Hallowell, 1857): background and general features of documented bites

4.2.3 Genera Hemorrhois (Boie, 1826), Platyceps (Blyth, 1860), Hierophis (Fitzinger in Bonaparte, 1834), Dolichophis (Gistel, 1868), and Coluber (Linnaeus, 1758): background and general features of documented bites

Dipsadidae

4.2.4 Genus Philodryas (Wagler, 1830): background and general features of documented bites

4.2.5 Genus Heterodon (Latreille, 1801): background and general features of documented bites

4.2.6 Genera Borikenophis and Cubophis (Hedges et al., 2009): background and general features of documented bites

Natricidae

4.2.7 Genus Thamnophis (Fitzinger, 1843) and comments on genus Nerodia (Baird and Girard, 1853): background and general features of documented bites

Psammophiidae

4.2.8 Genus Psammophis (Boie, 1825): background and general features of documented bites

4.2.9 Summarized consideration of representative species with limited evidence

4.3 Life-threatening and fatal cases: non-front-fanged snakes with lethal potential and assessment of evidence-based risk

4.3.1 Dispholidus typus (Smith, 1828), Thelotornis capensis (Smith, 1849), and Thelotornis kirtlandii (Hallowell, 1844); Colubridae, Colubrinae: background and general features of documented bites

4.3.2 Rhabdophis subminiatus (Schlegel, 1837), Rhabdophis tigrinus (Boie, 1826), and Rhabdophis ceylonensis (Gu¨nther, 1858); Natricidae: background and general features of documented bites

4.3.3 Comparison of major features of hazard level 1 non-front-fanged snakes (Fig. 4.2) (Dispholidus typus, Thelotornis capensis, Thelotornis kirtlandii, Rhabdophis tigrinus, Rhabdophis subminiatus, and Rhabdophis ceylonensis)

4.3.4 Guilty without a trial: three additional unsupported reports of fatal outcomes after bites by Tachymenis peruviana (Wiegmann, 1834) (Dipsadidae), Oligodon arnensis (Shaw, 1802) (Colubridae, Colubrinae), and Xenodon severus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Dipsadidae)

4.4 Aberrant cases and representative cases without clear etiology: a critical assessment of risk

4.4.1 Boiga irregularis (Bechstein, 1802) (Colubridae, Colubrinae)

4.4.2 Malpolon monspessulanus (Hermann, 1804) (Psammophiidae)

4.4.3 Hydrodynastes gigas (Dume´ril et al., 1854), Dipsadidae

4.4.4 Philodryas olfersii latirostris (Cope, 1863), Dipsadidae

4.4.5 Platyceps najadum (Eichwald, 1831) [Colubridae, Colubrinae]: a fatal case of progressive neuropathy from a colubrid bite?

4.4.6 Hierophis viridiflavus (Lace´pe`de, 1789) [Colubridae, Colubrinae]: a case of neurotoxic colubrine bite or a more common etiology?

4.4.7 "Venomous" bites by non-venomous lizards?

4.5 Pitfalls noted in documented cases: Differentiating Perceived versus Evidence-Based Risk

4.5.1 Examples of pitfalls noted in documented cases

4.5.2 Perceived versus evidence-based risk: human response to trauma and somatosensory amplification

4.6 Recommendations for management of medically significant non-front-fanged snake bites

4.6.1 General

4.6.2 Specific

Chapter 5 Summary and conclusions

Appendix A Representative unverified cases of medically significant non-front-fanged snake bites posted on the internet

Appendix B Representative lethal potency ranges and yields of venoms and other oral products from selected non-front-fanged colubroid snakes

Appendix C Strategies for management of gram-negative septicemia: are there lessons to be learned for managing venom-induced coagulopathies?

Appendix D Legal considerations regarding private ownership of venomous snakes (including hazard level 1 non-front fanged snakes): an opinionated essay

Appendix E List of examined osteological specimens

Additional recommended reading

Bibliography

Glossary

A call for cases

Index

Product details

  • Edition: 2
  • Latest edition
  • Published: March 8, 2023
  • Language: English

About the authors

SW

Scott A Weinstein

Dr. Scott A. Weinstein is a clinical toxinologist, venom researcher, and family physician. His academic training includes general and field herpetology, medical microbiology/immunology, biomedical sciences and comparative religion. His experience includes: treating snakebites and marine envenoming, as well as poisonous ingestions; characterization of aberrant toxins present in snake venoms; isolation of antimicrobial components of venoms; pharmacological studies of venom toxins in the rat blood-brain-barrier model and iontophoretic investigations, and antigenic relationships among venoms and secretions/blood of non-front-fanged snakes. He is a faculty member of the recurring Marine Animals and Snakebite Management symposia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Bangkok, Thailand and Yogyakarta, Indonesia) and is also a practicing family physician. He has contributed more than 100 peer-reviewed journal papers, and 4 books in toxinology, herpetology and clinical medicine. He is currently clinical toxinologist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, Assoc. Professor with the University of Adelaide School of Medicine, and Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Affiliations and expertise
Women's and Children's Hospital, North Adelaide, Australia

DW

David A. Warrell

Professor David Alan Warrell is Emeritus Professor of Tropical Medicine and Honorary Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford, UK. After training at Oxford, St Thomas’ Hospital and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London, he lived, worked, researched and travelled in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and other tropical countries, founding the Oxford University-based Tropical Medicine Research Program whose units study malaria and other major tropical diseases. He became Director of the Oxford Topical Network in 1986, and later Head of The Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford. He has published more than 400 research papers, articles, reviews and textbook chapters. He is a consultant to the World Health Organization on snake bites, rabies and malaria; the British Army, UK Medical Research Council, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Earth Watch International (conservation), Zoological Society of London, Royal Geographical Society and ToxBase UK. He also served as the past President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and International Federation for Tropical Medicine. His principal research interest remains the pathophysiology and treatment of envenoming. In November 2010, David Warrell was awarded the William Osler Memorial Medal by the Universty of Oxford, and was recently (September 2019) awarded the Sir Patrick Manson Medal, the highest honor awarded by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Affiliations and expertise
Emeritus Professor of Tropical Medicine and Honorary Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford, UK

DK

Daniel E Keyler

Dr. Keyler is Co-Director of Toxicology Research with the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation. He is an Emeritus Professor (Department of Experimental & Clinical Pharmacology with the University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy) and has authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has also authored multiple book chapters involving immunotherapeutics, animal toxins, venomous snakebite, and the medical management of snakebite victims. He has been actively involved with venomous snakes for over 40 years. The medical treatment of venomous snakebites has been a significant component of his professional career, and he has been involved in the medical treatment of over 250 venomous snakebites, including exotic species. He served as Chair of the Envenomations SIG with the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology 2002-07 and is a founding member with the Medical Advisory Committee to the Online Antivenom Index. He is also an author and reviewer of medical management recommendations for snakebites in the Antivenom Index.
Affiliations and expertise
Co-Director of Toxicology Research, Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation, University of Minnesota, USA

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