Venomous animals

Venom or zootoxin is any of a variety of poisonsused by several groups of animalspecies, for the purpose of defence and hunting prey. Most widely known are snakes, some species of which inject venom into their prey through hollow fangs, spiders, which also inject venom through "fangs," scorpions, and stinging insects, which inject venom with a sting (which is in fact a modified egg-laying device - the ovipositor). Venom is also found in some fisheslike the stonefish, scorpionfish, pufferfish, and stingrays; some jellyfish, mollusks, amphibians, and even in a few mammalslike the platypus, some shrews, and slow lorisesas well as one bird species the Hooded Pitohui.

Bees use an acidic venom designed to cause pain to the stung, because their purpose is to defend their home and food stores, while wasps use a chemically different venom designed to paralyze the prey, so it can be stored alive in the food chambers of their young. The use of venom is much more widespread than just these examples, of course.

It is important to note the difference between "venomous" and "poisonous", which are two commonly confused terms with regards to plantand animallife. Venomous, as stated above, refers to animals who injectvenom into their preyor as a self-defencemechanism while the organism is still alive. Poisonous, on the other hand, refers to plants or animals that are harmful when consumed or touched.

Snake venom

Main article: Snake venom

Snake venom is produced by glands below the eye and delivered to the victim through tubular or channelled fangs. Snake poisons contain a variety of peptide toxins. Snakes use their venom principally for hunting, though the threat of being bitten is used for defence. Snake bites cause pain, swelling, tissue damage, low blood pressure and convulsions (according to the species of snake).

Antiveninis used in the treatment of venomous bites. It is created by injecting a small amount of the targeted venom into an animal such as a sheep, horse, goat, or rabbit; the subject animal will suffer an immune response to the venom, producing antibodiesagainst the venom's active molecule which can then be harvested from the animal's blood and used to treat envenomation in others. This treatment may only be used on a given person a certain number of times, however, as that person will develop their own antibodies against the foreign animal antibodies injected into them. Even if that person doesn't have a serious allergic reaction to the antivenin, his or her own immune system can destroy the antivenin before the antivenin can destroy the venom. Though most people never require one treatment of antivenin in their lifetime, let alone several, people who work with snakes or other poisonous animals may. Luckily, these people often develop enough antibodies of their own against the venom of whatever animals they handle to become immune themselves, without needing the help of non-human antibodies.

See also

• Biotoxin
• Poison
• Schmidt Sting Pain Index
• Venomous animals(category)he:??? (???)

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venomous+animals Wikipedia article Venomous animals.