Riverbanks Zoo is saving lives with snake antivenin
originally Posted by: eddie Feb 10, 2004
It's the only place in Carolinas with cure for exotic snakebites
Associated Press
COLUMBIA - Two times in the past six months, Riverbanks Zoo has saved a life.
The zoo is the only place in the Carolinas that keeps medicine used to treat exotic snakebites, which usually occur when venomous pets bite their owners.
The recent cases were in Greenville, S.C., and Morehead City, N.C. The zoo sent vials of antivenin by helicopter to hospitals, said Scott Pfaff, curator of herpetology at the zoo.
Riverbanks stocks dozens of different antivenin for everything from eyelash vipers to king cobras. The North Carolina Zoo doesn't have exotic venomous snakes so it doesn't stock antivenin.
The zoo has come to the rescue eight times in the past 25 years, but the occurrences are becoming more frequent, in part because more people are keeping exotic venomous snakes as pets.
Pfaff said the medicine is made in countries where the snakes are native. It is very difficult to obtain, and sending out supplies to help others could leave staffers unprotected, Pfaff said.
"We're happy to provide the antivenin," Pfaff said. "We'd never turn down a request... But our staff is unprotected until we replace our stock."
While Riverbanks has never had to treat an employee with antivenin, the zoo tries to keep enough antivenin to treat two bites for each species in its collection.
The Carolinas Poison Center in Charlotte calls Riverbanks first whenever an exotic snakebite is reported, said center director Dr. Marsha Ford.
She said someone was bitten in western North Carolina a few years ago. "We sent our helicopter to the mountains to pick up the patient and our plane to Columbia to pick up the antivenin," Ford said.
A zoo official was at the airport with the antivenin. "We got the antivenin here before the patient arrived."
Ford said without the medicine, the patient would have died.
Hospitals are required by the federal permits that allow them to import the medicine to make it available to the public. But if those patients are uninsured, it can be difficult to recoup the cost of the medicine, which can cost $50 to $2,000 a vial.
Riverbanks stocks about $7,000 worth of antivenins, Pfaff said.
One problem is the lack of restrictions on what kind of snakes people can own. South Carolina has no limits, but the city of Columbia outlaws keeping venomous snakes as pets.
"There needs to be much stricter regulation on the keeping of exotic pets, whether it's lions or tigers or Gaboon vipers," said Satch Krantz, executive director at Riverbanks.
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