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

  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...

Androctonus sumericus sp. nov., a new scorpion from Dhi Qar Province, Iraq (Scorpiones: Buthidae) View supplementary material Androctonus sumericus sp. nov., a new scorpion from Dhi Qar Province, Iraq (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

 


Androctonus sumericus sp. nov., a new scorpion from Dhi Qar Province, Iraq (Scorpiones: Buthidae) View supplementary material Androctonus sumericus sp. nov., a new scorpion from Dhi Qar Province, Iraq (Scorpiones: Buthidae) 

Abstract

A new species Androctonus sumericus sp. nov. is described and illustrated from the Dhi Qar Province of Iraq, based on the material previously misidentified as A. crassi-cauda (Olivier, 1807). Therefore, the new species were compared particularly with that species, as well as with all species of Androctonus distributed in the Middle East, using their published descriptions.


Azhar Mohammed Al-Khazali & Ersen Aydın Yağmur (2023) Androctonus sumericus sp. nov., a new scorpion from Dhi Qar Province, Iraq (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Zoology in the Middle East, DOI: 10.1080/09397140.2023.2284016