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...

Spiders of Tunisia (Araneae): Past, Present and Future

 


Kmira, Ghassen & Nasri‐Ammar, Karima. (2024). Spiders of Tunisia (Araneae): Past, Present and Future. 10.5281/zenodo.13322984. This conference poster is a precursor to an upcoming comprehensive catalog of Tunisian spiders. The catalog, soon to be published, will serve as a cornerstone for future araneological research in Tunisia. It compiles and reviews all scattered literature, analyzes the current taxonomic composition and geographic distribution of spider records, and discusses the challenges and future perspectives of the discipline.