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[Magpie]

Also, I've spoken to a few proffessional immunologists and they've told me that you are no more likely to get an allergic reaction to venom or antivenene than you are to pretty much any other non self compounds, including the different types of food that you eat. Apparently allergies to snake venom/antivenene are very rare but get spoken about because of peoples' love of exaggerating or making stuff up when it comes to snakes. It's not all that unusual for snake bite victims to die and sometimes people wrongly say it was due to allergies rather than the toxicity of the venom.

Not quite true. You are no more likely to be allergic to these things than any other protein that enters your lymphatics or bloodstream. Most "non self" compounds are not injected into your lymphatics or bloodstream and most of them are also not proteins. Your body is far far more likely to be allergic to proteins than other substances... how many people you heard of are allergic to air? And how many to bee stings (it's the proteins that they have the allergy to usually.) It has been theorised that the prescence of the proteins in bee stings may be a deliberate strategy on natures behalf to cull out avid bee hasslers due to the large proportion of people allergic to them. :S who knows? Anyway, you have about the same odds of being allergic to snake venom as cats, dogs, horses, whatever.... it's just that those allergies tend to be annoying, snake allergies can kill ya right quick.