Horses play an important role in making vaccines to protect against snake venom.
Bigg Boss OTT-2 winner Elvish Yadav is accused of having rave parties with his friends and using snake venom to get intoxicated. The police is investigating the matter. Because of this case, snake poison is also in discussion these days. Whereas science does not accept this truth. Humans cannot use snake venom as an intoxicant. However, whatever truth will come out only after investigation. In the midst of this discussion, let us know how the vaccine that removes snake venom is made and what is its connection with horses.
Horses have a major contribution in the vaccine made for humans after snake bites. It is because of these horses that millions of lives are being saved. Actually, snake venom comes out in the form of liquid. It comes out only when a snake’s tooth pierces the human body. The method of extracting snake venom is adopted for treatment, in which the snake bites the object and the poison comes out through its teeth. In scientific language it is called venom milking. Still, vaccines are not available in sufficient quantity in the country and more than 50 thousand people die due to snake bites.
What is the role of horses in making vaccine?
Pune resident Nilimkumar Khaire, who has been working on wildlife, especially snakes, for more than 50 years, says that horses play a very important role in saving humans from snake venom. The vaccine that will be given in case of snake bite. Horses are used in the process of making it. After extracting snake venom, scientists first make its powder. Then it is sent to drug manufacturing companies.
Pharmaceutical companies use powder made from snake venom to make an injection, which is administered to horses in the lab. After a fixed procedure and interval, scientists draw blood from these horses and then bring it to the lab and serum is extracted from the blood. Vaccines are made from this serum, which is administered to humans after snake bites. It can be said that this is the main source of vaccine.
Not enough vaccine available
At present, many different companies are making vaccines to prevent snake bites in the country and all of them follow the same process. Nilimkumar says that the country still needs more vaccines. Due to lack of vaccines, more than 50 thousand people are dying every year in India alone. This work is not progressing because snake venom is not available in the quantity that the country needs.
Can it be used as an intoxicant?
On the question of snake venom being used for intoxication, Khayre said that it happened once. It was revealed that a man got bitten on his tongue by a snake and was still alive. I reached him after paying a fee of one thousand rupees. The snake by which he was getting bitten on his tongue was a water snake, which is not poisonous. He says that no matter how powerful a person is, if he gets bitten on his tongue by a snake of cobra, krait or viper species, he would die within a short time. It is not possible to use snake venom directly while intoxicated. He told that if this has to be done then science will have to go through a long process. That may take years.
Why are experiments done on horses?
Earlier, pharmaceutical companies have been using it on many animals like rats, monkeys and rabbits, but recently many difficulties have started facing it. This dangerous poison is used on horses because in our country horses are known to remain fit in all types of weather. They remain active on the mountains with the same intensity as they do in the fields.
Because of this characteristic of horses, when it came to identifying them as a symbol of strength, horse power was used. It doesn’t have any other technical meaning, just because the horse is a symbol of strength. He is known for running fast. Known for carrying burdens. It is for these reasons that horses are being used in making vaccines to prevent snake bites.
