Maintenance of scorpions of the genus Tityus Koch (Scorpiones, Buthidae) for venom obtention at Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Brazil

Cândido, Denise M.; Lucas, Sylvia

doi:10.1590/s1678-91992004000100007

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Nevertheless, most of the Costa Rican species tend to fall into cannibalism when kept in captivity, requiring individual maintenance. This feature is contradictory to the reports of the Butantán Institute, where up to 300 scorpions could be maintained in one single box, provided with corrugated cardboard acting as shelter and preventing stress conditions and cannibalism (Candido & Lucas, 2004).…”

Section: Maintenance In Captivitycontrasting

confidence: 64%

“…Due to the scorpionism occurrence in Latin America, the need for an antivenom elaboration has emerged. Thus, several commercial antivenoms are produced in different countries such as Brazil (Candido & Lucas, 2004), Mexico (Chippaux & Goyffon, 2008) and Venezuela (Poggioli De Scannone, 1996).…”

Section: Special Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is mainly due to difficulties in facilities, food sources (i.e. prey sizes), and more specialized professionals to take care of the collection (Candido & Lucas, 2004). On the other hand, in Costa Rica, the genus Tityus shows a dependency towards more humid habitats, since they can be found in very humid forests and are associated to vegetation.…”

Section: Newborns and Longevitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the highest venom yield (1.07 mg) corresponded to C. bicolor, which is a large scorpion (reaching 12 cm in total length); the lowest venom yield (0.11 mg) was obtained from T. pachyurus, whose average body size is 5 cm. These amounts of venoms were suitable for the development of antivenoms, since a minimum of 0.4 mg are required for the scorpion antivenom elaboration (Candido & Lucas, 2004).…”

Section: Venom Extraction and Yieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scorpions maintenance in captivity for venom extraction purposes in Costa Rica

Brenes¹,

Gómez²

2016

RBT

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Approximately 2 000 scorpion species can be found around the world; although few species are considered “harmful” to human beings, a high number of scorpionism cases are reported all over the world. The elaboration of anti-scorpion sera requires the establishment of an animal collection maintained in captivity for venom extraction purposes. The Clodomiro Picado Institute (ICP, for its acronym in Spanish), poses a vast trajectory in manufacturing snakebite antivenoms, and starts a scorpion collection in 2005 for this purpose. In total, 2 043 scorpions were classified in 11 species and collected during a seven-year period using a black-light flashlight and an intensive seeking methodology. The scorpions were collected from several localities of the Pacific and the Caribbean versants of Costa Rica. The venom extraction was performed by applying electrostimulation; the collected venom was characterized by total protein content in addition to median lethal doses. Centruroides bicolor showed higher amounts of venom yield, total protein content and more lethal dose, all of which were correlated with its body mass. The techniques used to keep scorpions in captivity allowed the animals to live several years. Longevity analysis showed significant differences among scorpion genera (H= 353.80; df= 3; P < 0.0001); moreover, the genus Didymocentrus lived longer with an average of 4.46 years. One key factor of its longevity was that it did not go through venom extraction processes. Additionally, a high survival rate of Tityus pachyurus born in captivity, compared to other species within the same genus, was observed (H= 94.32; df= 3; P < 0.0001). This characteristic should be taken into consideration, when programs of reproduction in captivity are designed. In conclusion, the maintenance of a scorpion collection was efficient for venom extraction purposes and a longer life expectancy of the animals. Moreover, there is a scarcity on publications regarding scorpion maintenance in captivity for venom extraction purposes; therefore, a deeper research in aspects such as reproduction, death causes and feeding behaviors is required.

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Section: Maintenance In Captivitycontrasting

confidence: 64%

Section: Special Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Newborns and Longevitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Venom Extraction and Yieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Scorpions maintenance in captivity for venom extraction purposes in Costa Rica

Brenes¹,

Gómez²

2016

RBT

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“…Many factors determine human health; among them are environmental climatic factors (Steen et al 2004). Understanding how these affect the species that live in the same environment and, thus, determining their better behavior are important so that prevention measures can be taken (Brasil 2001;Candido and Lucas 2002). Prevention is a powerful tool for the quality-of-life improvement for the population through the manipulation of these environmental risk factors (Maciel et al 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiology and injuries (1994–2005) resulting from poisonous animals in southern Santa Catarina State, Brazil

et al. 2007

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Accidents involving poisonous animals in southern Santa Catarina State, Brazil, from 1994 to 2005 were evaluated with the aim of verifying their frequency through the analysis of 2,625 victim's reports involving poisonous animals from the SINAN (System of Injury Notification Information) files of the Municipal Health Secretary of the AMESC and AMREC microregions, formed by 27 municipalities. Statistical analysis was performed using the chisquare exact test to verify similarities between the AMREC and AMESC microregions, where p values ≤0.05 were considered significant. The results demonstrated that: 52.95% (n = 1,390) of occurrences involved spiders, 18.13% (n=476) snakes, 5.00% (n=131) bees, 2.29% (n= 60) caterpillars, 1.41% (n=37) scorpions, 5.45% (n=143) other animals and 14.78% (n=388) unknown. The anatomic region that suffered the most bites was the feet 16.11% (n=444). Accidents were more frequent in men 54.64% (n=1.437) than in women 45.25% (n=1,188). In only 1.18% (n=31) of cases did recovery present sequelae. The months presenting the highest number of recorded cases were October through March, spring and summer in Brazil.The high frequency of victim recuperation suggests that the public health system is efficient, and the low frequency of recovered victims with sequelae also suggests that this system is fast and well-adjusted. However, there may have been deficiencies in the epidemiologic information system.

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Toxicity and protein composition of venoms of Hottentotta saulcyi, Hottentotta schach and Androctonus crassicauda, three scorpion species collected in Iran

Boghozian

Nazem

Fazilati

et al. 2021

Veterinary Medicine & Sci

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Background: Scorpion stings comprise a serious problem throughout the globe, especially in regions where they are more frequent. Despite a recent upsurge of interest in scorpion venoms by various research groups, there remain many challenges.Objective: Therefore, in this study, we aimed to study the toxicity and protein composition of venoms of Hottentotta saulcyi, Hottentotta schach and Androctonus crassicauda, three scorpion species collected in Iran.Materials and Methods: Scorpion species were collected from Esfahan farm scorpion company and maintained in the laboratory in containers that mimic their natural habitat. Venom was extracted from A. crassicauda, H. schach and H. saulcyi by electrical stimulation of 8 and 10 V. The toxicity of each venom was established by using four groups of male Swiss albino mice aged 2 months (weighting 18-20 g) for testing each dose of venom. One group was used as a control. Venom was injected into mice by subcutaneous route. Then, animals were monitored for 24 h and LD 50 was estimated by the graphic method of Miller and Tainter. Thus, high-performance liquid chromatographytandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method was used to determine amino acids in the venom, and protein concentrations were determined by the Biuret method.Results: LD 50 of scorpion venoms by subcutaneous route was found to be 1.70 mg/kg b.w (A. crassicauda), 1.47 mg/kg b.w (H. saulcyi) and 0.85 mg/kg b.w (H. schach). A. crassicauda, H. saulcyi and H. schach contain 26, 30, and 31 amino acids, respectively. A. crassicauda contains low concentrations of alpha-aminoadipic acid, beta-aminoisobutyric acid, beta-alanine and citrulline. H. saulcyi contains a concentration of hydroxylysine, whereas H. schach has no such concentration. A. crassicauda also had the highest levels of tyrosine and threonine. Only A. crassicauda venom contains a low proportion of proteins (14.80%) compared with those of H. schach (16.26%) and H. saulcyi (16.20%).Albumin content in the venoms was 11.7% (H. saulcyi), 5.4% (H. schach) and 4.4% (A. crassicauda).

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Maintenance of scorpions of the genus Tityus Koch (Scorpiones, Buthidae) for venom obtention at Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Brazil

Cited by 17 publications

References 3 publications

Scorpions maintenance in captivity for venom extraction purposes in Costa Rica

Scorpions maintenance in captivity for venom extraction purposes in Costa Rica

Epidemiology and injuries (1994–2005) resulting from poisonous animals in southern Santa Catarina State, Brazil

Toxicity and protein composition of venoms of Hottentotta saulcyi, Hottentotta schach and Androctonus crassicauda, three scorpion species collected in Iran

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