Talk:Snake venom

I'd like to begin revamping this article. I thought that a snake venoms should be put in a context of (1) all venoms, (2) specific adaptations for the survival of snakes, (3) human morbidity and mortality, and (4) applications to pharmaceuticals etc. My first edits are going to be pragmatic - based on full text literature that I have access to remotely. I hope that those who are interested join in editing the article and engaging in discussion here in discussion. Nancy Sculerati MD

References Used in Rewriting The Article

I intend, on a first pass rough draft, only to include footnotes as I would if I were submitting this review for a medical textbook or a review article for a peer reviewed journal. In either case, I would give specific references only for direct quotes, or to cite an important contribution made to the literature for the first time, or perhaps to reference a controversial issue. I would not and in my professional contributions to textbooks and peer reviewed literature -have not) make a footnote for facts that are generally known by MDs and PhDs familiar with the field, or that are repeated in multiple papers. However, as I think the points raised about using references to guide the reader are valid, I would like to keep track of actual references I do read in composing this article. Therefore I suggest we give this a try - here's a list of references consulted in writing this article. I will keep it as a running list as I contribute, and hopefully others will too, as they do the same. This might be a useful trail to leave on the discussion pages of all articles as we write and edit on Citizendium, or perhaps we could add an additional tab: "references" up there with "article", "discussion" etc.

(1)Encyclopedia of Life Sciences Copyright © 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Last updated: 20 Sep 2006 1.a)Article: Venoms W Dias da Silva, Thereza L Kipnis Standard article Published online: 25 April, 2001 1.B Article: Envenoming: Consequences and Management David A Warrell Standard article Published online: 29 January, 2003

(2)Schmidt JM. Antivenom therapy for snakebites in children: is there evidence?. [Review] [26 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 17(2):234-8, 2005 Apr. UI: 15800419

(3)Lewis RL. Gutmann L. Snake venoms and the neuromuscular junction. [Review] [26 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Seminars in Neurology. 24(2):175-9, 2004 Jun. UI: 15257514

(4)Warrell DA. Bites of venomous snakes.[comment]. [Comment. Letter] New England Journal of Medicine. 347(22):1804-5; author reply 1804-5, 2002 Nov 28. UI: 12456862

(5)Filippovich I. Sorokina N. Masci PP. de Jersey J. Whitaker AN. Winzor DJ. Gaffney PJ. Lavin MF. A family of textilinin genes, two of which encode proteins with antihaemorrhagic properties. [Journal Article] British Journal of Haematology. 119(2):376-84, 2002 Nov.

(6) Gold BS. Dart RC. Barish RA. Bites of venomous snakes.[see comment]. [Review] [37 refs] [Journal Article. Review] New England Journal of Medicine. 347(5):347-56, 2002 Aug 1. UI: 12151473

(7)Currie BJ. Clinical toxicology: a tropical Australian perspective. [Review] [3 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. 22(1):73-8, 2000 Feb. UI: 10688264

(8)White J. Bites and stings from venomous animals: a global overview. [Review] [10 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. 22(1):65-8, 2000 Feb. UI: 10688262

(9)Senior K. Taking the bite out of snake venoms. [News] Lancet. 353(9168):1946, 1999 Jun 5. UI: 10371585

(10) Trinh, Kiem Xuan; Trinh, Long Xuan; et al. The Production Of bungarus Candidus Antivenom From Horses Immunized With Venom & it's Application For The Treatment Of Snake Bite Patients In Vietnam: 75. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. 27(2):230, April 2005.

(11)Prescott, Ruth A. BSc (Hons, London) *; Potter, Paul C. MB, ChB, MD, FCP(SA), BSc (Hons) *+ Hypersensitivity to airborne spitting cobra snake venom. Annals of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology. 94(5):600-603, May 2005.

(12)Harris, J B 1; Goonetilleke, A 2 Animal poisons and the nervous system: what the neurologist needs to know. Neurology in Practice. 75 Supplement III:iii40-iii46, September 2004.

(13) Confronting the Neglected Problem of Snake Bite Envenoming: The Need for a Global Partnership Gutiérrez JM, Theakston RDG, Warrell DA PLoS Medicine Vol. 3, No. 6, e150 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030150

How many snake species- how many are venemous?

I have found so many numbers here that disagree I thought I'd keep tack of them, and hopefully sort this out into some reasonable statement.

1)"There are ~2340 species of snakes living on the earth and more than 420 species are venomous." quoted from Lewis RL. Gutmann L. Snake venoms and the neuromuscular junction. [Review] [26 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Seminars in Neurology. 24(2):175-9, 2004 Jun. UI: 15257514 who reference Herdon G Dowling's Book: Dowling HG, Duellman WE. Systematic Herpetology: A Synopsis of Families and Higher Categories. New York: Hiss Publications; 1978:100–102