Toxic activities of O. scutellatus venom and neutralisation by antivenoms.

aLethal activity was determined for the i.p. and i.v. routes in CD-1 mice. Median Lethal Dose (LD50) is expressed as µg venom/mouse (mean ± S.D)bCoagulant activity, expressed as the Minimum Coagulant Concentration (MCC), either in citrated plasma or in citrated plasma to which CaCl2 was added immediately before the test. Results are the mean ± S.D.cMyotoxic activity, expressed as the Minimum Myotoxic Dose (MMD).dNeutralisation is expressed as either ED50 (lethality and PLA2) or ED (coagulant and myotoxic effects) (see Materials and Methods for details). Results are presented as mg venom neutralised per mL antivenom. For lethality, the 95% confidence limits are included in parenthesis. For the other effects, results are presented as mean ± S.D. (n = 4–6). Challenge doses of venom correspond to 4 LD50s (lethality), 2 MCCs (coagulant), 1 MMD (myotoxicity), and 1.5 µg venom (PLA2 activity).eCSL taipan antivenom is labelled as containing at least 12,000 Neutralising Units of antivenom, where 1 Unit = 0.01 mg venom neutralised (i.e.: 12,000 units neutralises 120 mg venom). Actual neutralising unit values for each antivenom are given here for comparison and are calculated from fill volumes of each product.*p