Curses or Cures: A Review of the Numerous Benefits Versus the Biosecurity Concerns of Conotoxin Research

Bjørn‐Yoshimoto, Walden E.; Ramiro, Iris Bea L; Yandell, Mark; McIntosh, J. Michael; Olivera, Baldomero M.; Ellgaard, Lars; Safavi-­Hemami, Helena

doi:10.3390/biomedicines8080235

Cited by 30 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 158 publications

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“…However, providing guidelines to arachnid enthusiasts for improving due care when interacting with their arachnid pets could be helpful in preventing most incidents. As pet arachnids continue to be an important source of venoms and toxins used for research to benefit humanity (Herzig et al, 2020;Osteen et al, 2016), imposing unsubstantiated regulatory measures could even negatively impact the progress of research as evidenced by research on venomous cone snails (Bjorn-Yoshimoto et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Love Bites – Do Venomous Arachnids Make Safe Pets?

Hauke¹,

Herzig²

2020

Preprint

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With a global estimate of tens of thousands of arachnid enthusiasts, spiders and scorpions are gaining increasing popularity as pets in industrialised countries in Europe, Northern America and Asia. As most spiders and all scorpions are venomous and due to their mostly negative image in the public media, several governments are already considering introducing legislation to regulate the domestic care of potentially dangerous captive animals. We aimed to investigate the circumstances and effects of exposure to arachnids kept in captivity. Thus, we collected and analysed data from 354 reported bites and stings attributed to pet arachnids. Our data revealed that on average there were less than 20 recorded envenomations per year with ~90% preventable by due care. We also categorized the severity of the resulting symptoms and found that the vast majority of symptoms were either local (60.7%) or moderate (32.8%), 5.4% were asymptomatic, only 1.1% were severe and no fatalities were recorded. Based on our database of bite and sting reports, we performed a risk assessment for arachnid pet ownership and concluded that with the proper care arachnids can be safely kept as pets and pose a lower risk than many other recreational activities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Love Bites – Do Venomous Arachnids Make Safe Pets?

Hauke¹,

Herzig²

2020

Preprint

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“…However, providing guidelines to arachnid enthusiasts for improving due care when interacting with their arachnid pets could be helpful in preventing most incidents. As pet arachnids continue to be an important source of venoms and toxins used for research to benefit humanity [44,59], imposing unsubstantiated regulatory measures could even negatively impact the progress of research as evidenced by research on venomous cone snails [60].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Love Bites – Do Venomous Arachnids Make Safe Pets?

Hauke¹,

Herzig²

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With a global estimate of tens of thousands of arachnid enthusiasts, spiders and scorpions are gaining increasing popularity as pets in industrialised countries in Europe, Northern America and Asia. As most spiders and all scorpions are venomous and due to their mostly negative image in the public media, several governments are already considering introducing legislation to regulate the domestic care of potentially dangerous captive animals. We aimed to investigate the circumstances and effects of exposure to arachnids kept in captivity. Thus, we collected and analysed data from 335 reported bites and stings attributed to pet arachnids. Our data revealed that on average there were less than 20 recorded envenomations per year with ~90% preventable by due care. We also categorized the severity of the resulting symptoms and found that the vast majority of symptoms were either local (60.9%) or moderate (33.4%), 4.8% were asymptomatic, only 0.9% were severe and no fatalities were recorded. Based on our database of bite and sting reports, we performed a risk assessment for arachnid pet ownership and concluded that with the proper care arachnids can be safely kept as pets and pose a lower risk than many other recreational activities.

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“…The contribution by Nixon et al reveals that the dimeric ant peptide Mp1a is responsible for a broad range of activities, including the extremely painful symptoms experienced by humans that are stung by jack jumper ants [ 65 ]. Potential biosecurity concerns of conotoxins are discussed and largely rejected by Bjorn-Yoshimoto et al [ 66 ], with the benefits of peptides from cone snails by far outweighing their potential negative impacts. Nevertheless, this review article nicely exemplifies how scientifically unsubstantiated political red tape can negatively impact the progress of toxinological research.…”

Section: Contributions To This Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Animal Venoms—Curse or Cure?

Herzig

2021

Biomedicines

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An estimated 15% of animals are venomous, with representatives spread across the majority of animal lineages. Animals use venoms for various purposes, such as prey capture and predator deterrence. Humans have always been fascinated by venomous animals in a Janus-faced way. On the one hand, humans have a deeply rooted fear of venomous animals. This is boosted by their largely negative image in public media and the fact that snakes alone cause an annual global death toll in the hundreds of thousands, with even more people being left disabled or disfigured. Consequently, snake envenomation has recently been reclassified by the World Health Organization as a neglected tropical disease. On the other hand, there has been a growth in recent decades in the global scene of enthusiasts keeping venomous snakes, spiders, scorpions, and centipedes in captivity as pets. Recent scientific research has focussed on utilising animal venoms and toxins for the benefit of humanity in the form of molecular research tools, novel diagnostics and therapeutics, biopesticides, or anti-parasitic treatments. Continued research into developing efficient and safe antivenoms and promising discoveries of beneficial effects of animal toxins is further tipping the scales in favour of the “cure” rather than the “curse” prospect of venoms.

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Curses or Cures: A Review of the Numerous Benefits Versus the Biosecurity Concerns of Conotoxin Research

Cited by 30 publications

References 158 publications

Love Bites – Do Venomous Arachnids Make Safe Pets?

Love Bites – Do Venomous Arachnids Make Safe Pets?

Love Bites – Do Venomous Arachnids Make Safe Pets?

Animal Venoms—Curse or Cure?

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