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...

The first occurrence records of Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz, 1842) from Ascension Island and Saint Barthélemy (Araneae: Filistatidae)

 


The first occurrence records of Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz, 1842) from Ascension Island and Saint Barthélemy (Araneae: Filistatidae)

Abstract

The Southern House Spider Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz, 1842), native to coastal eastern Mexico and the eastern United States, is widely distributed in Central and South America, the Caribbean, and has been recorded from Liberia and the Canary Islands. Recent examination of material from Ascension Island and Saint Barthélemy newly confirm its presence as a non-native species on these islands. Kukulcania hibernalis is synanthropic, which has presumably allowed it to colonise many non-indigenous countries. In addition to reporting the new localities, we map the updated global distribution of K. hibernalis.

Sherwood, Danniella & Sharp, Adam. (2023). The first occurrence records of Kukulcania hibernalis (Hentz, 1842) from Ascension Island and Saint Barthélemy (Araneae: Filistatidae). Opuscula Zoologica. 205-209. 10.18348/opzool.2023.9.205. Danniella Sherwood via ResearchGate