Download Supply of Anti-venom Horse Plasma

Supply of Anti-venom Horse Plasmas
There are as many as 2700 species of snakes in the entire world, but only
about 375 poisonous ones.
In subtropical Taiwan, snakes are found
almost everywhere, particularly in the mountains and forests. There are
59 species, including 19 poisonous ones in sea and 12 on land in Taiwan.
However, the six most commonly encountered by people and thus most
dangerous poisonous snakes here on the island are: 1) Taiwan Cobra
(Naja naja atra), 2) Pit Viper (Deinagkistrodon acutus), 3) Bamboo Viper
(Trimeresurus
stejnegeri),
4)
Taiwan
banded
krait
(Bungarus
multicinctus), 5) Taiwan Habu (Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus), and 6)
Russell’s Pit Viper (Daboia russellii formosensis). At Taiwan CDC, we
are having a snake facility raising about 100 various poisonous snakes
and arange with 45 horses for this very purpose at present.
In the process of turning the anti-venom horse blood, the raw material, to
make the anti-venom plasmas, the products, we first withdraw venom
from a specific snake and get rid of its lethal component before
immunization taking place or inoculate it into the horse.
When the
anti-serum potency in the horse has reached 60 Tanaka units (TU), we
take out 5 to 9 liter blood per horse for the make of the product. The
amount of withdrawn blood depends on the horse body weight. The
following flow chart describes the individual steps we use to manufacture
our anti-venom horse plasmas at Taiwan CDC:
Raise
poisonous snake
(snake room）
Take venom
Mix with
adjuvant
Immunize
horse
Test
blood
Non-toxin
(snake room)
Verify titer
Freeze-dried
venom
Make
venom
(凍結乾燥機)
0
1 separate
plasma
Partial
withdraw
blood
Infuse N/S with
horse RBC
Make product and
verify again
Vaccine supply
and sale
20 separate plasma
(cold-storage room)