Determination of the main causes of death in Brazilian venomous snakes kept in captivity: anato-pathological study of the deaths from 2000 to 2017

• Grant number: 17/18100-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2017
• End date: November 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Kathleen Fernandes Grego
• Grantee: Kathleen Fernandes Grego
• Host Institution: Instituto Butantan. Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Eliana de Oliveira Serapicos ; Jose Luiz Catao Dias ; Marcelo Pires Nogueira de Carvalho ; Sávio Stefanini Sant Anna ; Stéfanie Vanessa Santos

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the main causes of death in Brazilian venomous snakes of the genus Bothrops, Crotalus, Lachesis and Micrurus, kept in captivity in the intensive and semi-extensive animal facility of the Laboratory of Herpetology at Butantan Institute. The Laboratory of Herpetology maintains approximately 1000 snakes in captivity for the extraction of venom for immunobiological researches and for the production of different types of antivenom serum: anti-crotalic serum; Antibotropic serum, antibotropic-crotalic serum, antibotropis-laquetic serum and antielapidic serum. Eighty percent of the antiofidic serum distributed throughout the national territory are produced by Butantan Institute. To perform this study, a total of five hundred snakes' necropsy files that died between 2000 and 2017, with their respective tissue samples will be analyzed. The fixed organ fragments will be processed according to routine paraffin inclusion techniques. Cuts of 5 ¼m will be obtained and stained by the hematoxylin-eosin technique and specific histochemical stains will be considered when appropriate. Metazoan and protozoan parasites, when found, will be identified by family and, where possible, by genus, through specific characteristics of each parasite observed in histopathological slides. The results obtained will be tabulated with the cause of death and the main and secondary diagnoses. The large amount of material and data that will be produced will allow the identification of seasonal pathologies, those related to sex and age, the different types of neoplasias and species-specific pathologies, helping to understand the different pathologies that affect these species in captivity. The results of this work may contribute to the conservation of the species; captive breeding of these animals; and, consequently, to public health, as the maintenance of venomous snakes in captivity is of paramount importance for the production of antivenom serum. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

KATHLEEN FERNANDES GREGO; SAMIRA EMANUELA MARIA VIEIRA; JARBAS PRADO VIDUEIROS; ELIANA DE OLIVEIRA SERAPICOS; CIBELE CÍNTIA BARBARINI; GIOVANNI PEREZ MACHADO DA SILVEIRA; FABÍOLA DE SOUZA RODRIGUES; LUCAS DE CARVALHO FRANCISCO ALVES; DANIEL RODRIGUES STUGINSKI; LUCIANA CARLA RAMEH-DE-ALBUQUERQUE; et al. Maintenance of venomous snakes in captivity for venom production at Butantan Institute from 1908 to the present: a scoping history. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, v. 27, 2021-01-22. (17/18100-2)