Poster 067 - Corporal measures of Bothrops alternatus, Bothrops neuwiedii and Crotalus durissus

Poster 67. Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Toxinologia, 8., Symposium of the Pan American Section of the International Society on Toxinology, 8., 2004, Angra dos Reis, Brasil. Abstracts... J. Venom. Anim. Toxins incl.Trop. Dis., 2004, 10, 3, p.426.

Corporal Measures Of Bothrops alternatus, Bothrops neuwiedii And Crotalus durissus terrificuss And Its Relationship With The Venom Yield.

Sabattini, P.L.; Galarce, P.P.; Galarce, M.A.; Manzanelli, V.M.; Piñeiro, N.; de Roodt, A.R.

The relationship among the large of the body (L, measured in cm), weight (W, measured in g), corporal mass (M, large/weight, cm/g), separation between fangs (SBF, cm), differences between SBF and the distance between fangs in the bite mark (DBM, cm) and the venom yield (VY) of specimens of Bothropsalternatus (Ba), Bothropsneuwiedii (Bn) and Crotalusdurissus terrificus (Cdt) were studied. In all the cases it was observed a positive correlation between the SBF and L (Ba: r²=0.73, n=41; Bn: r²=0.84; n=54; Cdt: r²=0.83, n=38) , W (Ba: r²=0.67, n=41; Bn: r²=0.74; n=54; Cdt: r²=0.74; n=38), M (Ba: r²=0.66, n=41; Bn: r²=0.73; n=54; Cdt: r²=0.75; n=38 ) and VY (Ba: r²=0.76; n=29; Bn: 0.58, n=15; Cdt: r²=0.63; n=31). Unless there were observed differences between SBF and DBM in all the cases, it was observed a positive correlation between this variables in all the cases (Ba: r²=0.84, n=21; Bn: r²=0.85, n=20; Cdt: r²=0.43, n=21). The DBM was higher than the SBF in all the cases with values of difference between both measures around 14.7 ± 6.73% (Minimum –1.0%, Maximum 30%) of difference for Ba, 10.05 ± 5.41% (Minimum 0%, Maximum 22%) for Bn and of 11.43 ± 7.90% (Minimum –5.0%, Maximum 29.00%) for Cdt. The correlation between the percentages of difference in all the cases were negative with a low correlation. It was observed minor differences between both variables when the size (and consequently the age) of the animals increases. The correlation values obtained were: (Ba: r²= 0.11; Bn: r²= 0.24; Cdt: 0.15). The well correlations between the SBF and L, W and M and the small differences between this variable and DBM (mean around 10%, maximum 22-30%) strengthen the criteria of correlating the marks of the fangs in the site of the bite with the size of the animal, and consequently with the amount of venom that it could have injected. This is specially important when the snake was not observed or found after the bite.