Poison paradox : Here is how Australia's most dangerous animals contribute to medicine by saving lives

Time of India

2 days ago

Source: BBC
According to a BBC report, armed with a pair of bright pink tweezers,
Emma Teni
carefully operations a large and long-legged
spider
inside a small plastic container. Emma operates from a compact space known as the spider milking room. On an average day, she collects venom from up to 80
Sydney funnel-web spiders
. Three walls are lined with shelves full of these spiders, partially concealed behind a dark curtain to help keep them calm.
'Sydney funnel-webs are arguably the most dangerous spiders on Earth,' Emma states calmly.
Australia is known for its deadly creatures and this modest room at the Australian Reptile Park is vital to the national antivenom program which is a life-saving initiative in a country often humorously described as a place where 'everything wants to kill you.'
Poison paradox researched by a spider expert
Although the fastest recorded fatality from a Sydney funnel-web spider bite occurred in just 13 minutes which is tragically involving a toddler with the average time to death is closer to 76 minutes. With prompt first aid, survival chances improve significantly. Thanks to the antivenom program run by the Australian Reptile Park, there hasn't been a single fatality from a funnel-web bite since the initiative began in 1981.The program, however, depends on the public to safely catch these spiders or collect their egg sacs. Every week, Emma Teni and her team travel across Sydney in a van marked with a giant crocodile decal, collecting spiders that locals have dropped off at places like vet clinics and community centers.
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According to Ms. Teni, there are two key factors that make Sydney funnel-web spiders so dangerous which is their venom is incredibly powerful and they live in densely populated areas and are increasing the likelihood of human contact.
Charlie Simpson, a 26-year-old handyman and gardening enthusiast, recently experienced this firsthand. After moving into a new home with his girlfriend, he discovered two funnel-webs in his yard. He safely caught the second one and brought it to a local vet, where Ms. Teni later collected it. As Ms. Teni carefully transfers another spider that arrived in a Vegemite jar, she emphasizes that the goal isn't to encourage people to take unnecessary risks.All the spiders collected by Emma and her team are brought back to the Australian Reptile Park, where they're carefully catalogued, sexed and stored.Females are considered for a breeding program to help increase the number of spiders beyond what's donated by the public. The males, which are six to seven times more venomous than females, play a key role in antivenom production and are 'milked' for venom every two weeks.
To extract venom, Emma uses a pipette connected to a suction hose, an essential setup, as each spider yields only a tiny amount. While just a few drops could be deadly, it takes venom from around 200 spiders to produce a single vial of antivenom.
Emma, who originally trained as a marine biologist and once worked with seals, never imagined she'd end up milking spiders. But now she embraces it fully—she adores arachnids and is known by many nicknames, from "Spider Girl" and "Spider Mama" to 'Weirdo,' as her daughter affectionately calls her.Her fascination with Australia's creepy crawlies means friends, neighbors, and family frequently turn to her for advice.
Where a bite least dangerous for poison
Spiders are just a small part of the work done at the Australian Reptile Park, which has also been supplying snake venom to the government since the 1950s.Globally, snake bites are a serious concern , the World Health Organization estimates around 140,000 deaths annually with many more left permanently disabled. In contrast, Australia sees far fewer fatalities with only one to four deaths per year, largely thanks to its highly effective antivenom program.
At the park, operations manager Billy Collett demonstrates the process by retrieving a King Brown snake. He calmly secures the snake's head with his bare hands and places its fangs over a shot glass covered in plastic wrap to collect the venom. The venom is freeze-dried and sent to CSL Seqirus, a laboratory in Melbourne, where it is processed into antivenom—a procedure that can take up to 18 months.
The first stage involves producing hyper-immune plasma. For snake venom, this means injecting controlled amounts into horses, chosen for their size and robust immune systems.
For Sydney funnel-web spiders, rabbits are used since they are naturally immune to the toxins. These animals receive gradually increasing venom doses to build up their antibodies, a process that can take nearly a year.
Once the antibodies are developed, the plasma is extracted from the animal's blood, and the antibodies are isolated and prepared for bottling and distribution.
CSL Seqirus produces around 7,000 vials annually, covering antivenoms for snakes, spiders, stonefish, and box jellyfish, each with a shelf life of 36 months. Ensuring these antivenoms reach those who need them is a major logistical challenge.
Vials are distributed based on the local species—for instance, Taipan antivenom is sent to northern Australia but not Tasmania, where the snake isn't found.
Antivenoms are also supplied to the Royal Flying Doctors for reaching remote communities, as well as to the Australian navy and cargo ships to protect sailors from sea snake bites.
Papua New Guinea also receives around 600 vials of antivenom annually. Once connected to Australia by a land bridge, the two countries share many of the same snake species, so Papua New Guinea is provided with antivenom free of charge—a form of 'snake diplomacy.'
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