Snake Anti-Venom From Chicken Eggs

Makarand writes "Scientists have found a way to collect snake anti-venom from chicken eggs according to this article in The Times Of India. In this newly developed technique 12 week old birds injected with sub-lethal doses of venom followed by a booster dose after 2-3 weeks started to lay eggs with anti-venom antibodies concentrated in the yolk. Anti-venom produced in horses sometimes has other proteins that can cause allergic reactions, kidney failure and serum sickness in some people. Anti-venom from chicken is expected to have no such side-effects. This newly developed process is also an improvement in the quantity of anti-venom produced - antibodies produced by 1 litre of horse blood could be obtained from just 50 chicken eggs."

Comments

Re:What about eating these eggs?

[!splut]

No, and no with a but.

First the "no":
No, because, as you point out, it wouldn't get into your system. Anti-venom is in the form of antibodies, and these are nice big proteins. Intact protiens cannot pass through the epithelium lining your digestive tract, so the digestive system does a very thorough job of chopping up proteins up prior to absorption into the body.

Yes, some tiny amount of the protein may find its way into the bloodstream through a cut or hole in a membrane somewhere... But it doesn't matter, because exposure to anti-venom antibodies does not confer immunity. Anti-venom works when antibodies in the anti-venom bind to the toxic components in venom, thereby rendering the components inactive and targeting them for destruction by the immune system.

Which brings us to the "no with a but":
No, exposure to the antibodies won't help you to build up an immunity. But, if those eggs happen to have an amount of the original venom in them, things might be different. If the toxic components of the venom are small molecules (which are more likely to pass through the epithelial lining intact) rather than enzymes (I honestly don't remember what the active ingredients in snake hemo- and neurotoxins are), or even if enough venom enzyme make its way into the body, then the immune system would be exposed to the venom in non-lethal doses. Then the egg would serve as an innoculation, the individual's own immune system would have an opportunity to produce his or her own anti-venom antibodies, and immunity to the venom in question could be built up.

But those are big "if"s