Inter-individual variability in equine antibody responses to African snake venoms follows heavy-tailed distributions with implications for antivenom production

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  Inter-individual variability in equine antibody responses to African snake venoms follows heavy-tailed distributions with implications for antivenom production Abstract Variability in the antibody response of horses used for snake antivenom manufacture is well recognized, yet its statistical structure and implications for industrial productivity remain poorly characterized. In this study, we quantified antivenom antibody titers by ELISA in a cohort of 14 horses immunized with venoms from the clinically most important snakes in sub-Saharan Africa. To integrate antibody levels with plasma availability, we calculated the Cumulative Plasma Productivity (CPP) by converting individual plasma volumes into titer-corrected equivalents and sequentially pooling these volumes according to their corrected contribution. Distributional analysis revealed right-skewed, heavy-tailed patterns better approximated by a log-normal model than by a strict Pareto (power-law) form, with approximately 20–3...

Living with the enemy? Predation on the frog Tachiramantis tayrona by a Theraphosidae spider

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Living with the enemy? Predation on the frog Tachiramantis tayrona by a Theraphosidae spider

Given that predation is a biotic interaction that can shape the behaviour of potential prey (Ruxton et al., 2018), it is important to know who is eating who in nature. Invertebrates have often been recorded to predate on amphibian anurans, with spiders being one of the most important predators of terrestrial frogs (Menin et al., 2005; Toledo, 2005; Nyffeler and Altig, 2020). In this short note, we report on a predation event of a mygalomorph spider upon the frog Tachiramantis tayrona (Lynch and Ruiz-Carranza, 1985), an endemic species to Colombia that is currently categorised as “Near Threatened” (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, 2017).

Herpetology Notes, volume 16: 593-595 (2023) (published online on 08 August 2023)