Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Most deadly or most venomous?

There is a differance


donk

As i said there is a differance......it was my understanding that more people die every year in India then anywhere else ( between 10,000- 12,000 per year) so i would say that the most deadly (snake/snakes) species would live in India.

In saying that, it does not mean that India has the most venomous snakes.

Donk
 
Yuppers, and even if you say most venemous, do you take yield into account? Do you test them on mice or on people? Subcut, IM or IV?
 
fierce snake [ inland taipan] is definately top of the list but all depends if you mean most venomous or most dangerous as in aggression ; temperament etc
 
No lists will ever be accurate, if you are to compile a list of the top most venomous snakes you must first test every snakes venom in the world which basically wont ever happen so we just have to go by what we have.
 
Most of the lists referred to are far from accurate, especially those claiming that most of the top ten venomous land snakes occurred in Australia. The only reason for this is Australia's venomous snakes have received more research and attention to those of the more dangerous snakes overseas. Hence, these lists ignore the more toxic snakes found overseas.

On most lists, you will find Inland Taipan, Eastern Brown Snake and Coastal Taipan, in that order. After this, it varies a lot depending on how the venom is administered to the mice. Click on the link below to read an overview of this. I believe one of the most accurate lists to go by would be the subcutaneous list that you access from the link below.

http://www.kingsnake.com/toxinology/LD50/LD50men.html

Cheers,

Macca
 
deadliest

No 1 Inland taipan
no 2 eastern and western brown
no 3 coastal taipan
no 4 tigersnake
no 5 death adder
no 6 copperhead
no 7 mulgasnake King brown (black snake)
no 8 stephens banded
no 9 collet (black snake)
no 10 spotted black
 
Last edited:
In a book I have it says the Coastel Taipan is Australia's most deadly because of the amount of venom ejected.
 
I have my own thoughts on this, why test snake venom on mice if you want to see it's effect on humans? Isn't LD50 a test on mice, and therefore how much weight does this carry? In India or Sri Lanka (Russells Viper) death by snakebite is rather common or should I say prolific, But these people (in such densely populated areas) are getting around with no shoes on and sticking their hands down rat holes etc. It's no wonder so many people get bitten. The Eastern Brown snake kills more people than any other snake in this country so if your'e talking deadly then it should rank number 1. However until tests are carried out on humans with Inland Taipan venom it can only be counted as potentially deadly. Again, these are my thoughts and I'm certainly no expert (just interested).
 
I have my own thoughts on this, why test snake venom on mice if you want to see it's effect on humans? Isn't LD50 a test on mice, and therefore how much weight does this carry? In India or Sri Lanka (Russells Viper) death by snakebite is rather common or should I say prolific, But these people (in such densely populated areas) are getting around with no shoes on and sticking their hands down rat holes etc. It's no wonder so many people get bitten. The Eastern Brown snake kills more people than any other snake in this country so if your'e talking deadly then it should rank number 1. However until tests are carried out on humans with Inland Taipan venom it can only be counted as potentially deadly. Again, these are my thoughts and I'm certainly no expert (just interested).

I think you may find LD50 is not just tested on mice. In order to make it rational for humans it can be tested on pigs (for lethal ingestation or blood stream etc). Rabbits for dermatesting and I can't recall the rest.... But definitely not just mice.

From Wikipedia:

Oral LD50 of grain alcohol: 10.6 g/kg in young rats, 7.06 g/kg in aged rats. [5]
Oral LD50 of nicotine: 50 mg/kg in rats. [6]
Oral LD50 of Table Salt: 3000 mg/kg in rats [7]
LD50 of Tetrahydrocannabinol (active ingredient found in Cannabis): 1270 mg/kg in rats.
LD50 of batrachotoxin: estimated at 1 to 2 µg/kg in humans.
LD50 of Polonium 210: estimated at 10 (inhaled) to 50 (ingested) nanograms in humans makes this one of the most toxic substances known. One gram in theory could poison 100 million people of which 50 million would die.

I do note they have used rats here

PS - Those young rats weren't of legal age for the grain alcohol test :p
 
This may help a little.

LETHALITY IN MICE
From Broad, Sutherland & Coulter (1979)

(In descending order including LD50 in mg/kg administered subcutaneously. In first figure venom diluted in saline solution only, 2nd includes the addition of a blood protein, bovine serum albumin)

Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus) 0.025 0.01

Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis) 0.053 0.041

Northern Taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) 0.099 0.064

Eastern Mainland Tiger Snake (Notechis s. scutatus) 0.118 0.118

Reevesby Island Tiger Snake (Notechis ater niger) 0.131 0.099

Beaked Sea Snake (Enhydrina schistosa) 0.164 0.173

Western Mainland Tiger Snake (Notechis scutatus occidentalis) 0.194 0.124

Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) 0.32

Chappell Island Tiger Snake (Notechis ater serventyi) 0.338 0.271

Southern Death Adder (Acanthophis antarcticus) 0.4 0.338

Gwardar (Pseudonaja nuchalis) 0.473

Copperhead (Austrelaps superbus) 0.56 0.5

Indian Cobra (Naja naja) 0.565 0.5

Dugite (Pseudonaja a. affinis) 0.66 0.56

Papuan Black Snake (Pseudechis papuanus) 1.09 1.36

Stephens's Banded Snake (Hoplocephalus stephensii) 1.36 1.44

Rough-scaled Snake (Tropidechis carinatus) 1.36 1.09

King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) 1.8 1.91

Spotted Black Snake (Pseudechis guttatus) 2.13 1.53

Collett's Snake (Pseudechis colletti) 2.38

King Brown Snake (Pseudechis australis) 2.38 1.91

Red-bellied Black Snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) 2.52 2.53

Small-eyed Snake (Cryptophis nigrescens) 2.67

Eastern Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) 11.4 7.70

Olive Whip Snake (Demansia olivacea) 714.2
 
Those list's are very misleading for the average person. The Stephens Banded is listed above the King Cobra and King Brown in LD50. But anyone who thinks a Stephens is more dangerous than either one of those is living in fairy land. There's dozens of oversea's snakes that are more dangerous or deadly than Stephens Bandeds, Small Eyes or Red Bellies, just to name a few.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
1 inland taipan
2 eastern brown snake
3 coastal taipan
4 common tiger snake
5 beaaked sea snake
6 chappal island tiger snake
7 revsby island tiger snke
8 bass strait tiger snkae
9 common death adder
10 western brown snake
 
To get a reasonable idea of the most venomous or most dangerous look up reptile-gardens.com
It is a very popular tourist attraction in Florida that does a lot of reptile research.
 
All could be the deadliest if you don't know first aid for snakebite
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top