Is the mongoose immune to snake venom?

warriorone

No, they are just quick and avoid the bite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Mongoose Nov 16 07, 9:48 AM

zbeckabee

Yes. Scientists recently discovered a secret defense mongooses have against snakes: they're immune to the snakes' venom! Even if a mongoose suffers a snake bite, it will live. Scientists hope to use the mongoose's secret weapon to create anti-venom drugs that protect people against snake bites. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-19912911.html Nov 16 07, 10:00 AM

warriorone

Another source to state they are not immune to the venom. http://www.answers.com/topic/mongoose They are immune if they eat (and swallow) the snake after they kill it. The venom is not deadly in that case. If they are bitten, then it becomes lethal. Nov 16 07, 10:58 AM

Shiney-Ninja

I was under the impression that their fur was too thick for some snake's fangs to penetrate. I don't have a reference though, so feel free to ignore me. Nov 16 07, 11:11 AM

zbeckabee

The Hedgehog, the Mongoose, the Secretary Bird, the Honey Badger and a few other birds feeding on snakes, are known to be immune to an ordinary dose of snake venom. Coupled with its speed and courage is the fact that the mongoose has a high tolerance to the venom of a snake. It takes about eight times the lethal dose of snake bite for a rabbit to kill a mongoose. Now, there you have it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_venom http://me.essortment.com/mongoose_rhbg.htm Nov 16 07, 12:01 PM

zbeckabee

Here's something a little more scientific: The active ingredient most commonly found in snake venoms, alpha-neurotoxin, works by attaching itself to acetylcholine receptor molecules on the surface of muscle cells. These receptors are designed to receive messages from nerves which tell the muscles to contract or relax. But alpha-neurotoxin blocks the messages, paralysing and ultimately killing the victim. Sara Fuchs of the Immunology Department at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, who is an expert on the physiology of the junctions between nerves and muscles, studied the molecular structures of acetylcholine receptors and found that those in mongooses and snakes are shaped so that it is impossible for snake venom to attach to them. The receptors can still transfer messages from nerves to muscles, and are unaffected by snake venom. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15320642.500.html Nov 16 07, 1:40 PM

myrab51

So is the mongoose only resistant to snakes that have alpha-neurotoxin based venoms? Nov 16 07, 3:05 PM

zbeckabee

myrab51 -- This just further confuses the issue: Snake venom can be divided into two broad (yet fuzzy) categories. That of hemotoxicity and neurotoxicity. Hemotoxic venom effects the blood and organs, causing a breakdown or inflammation in the body. Hemotoxic bites are the most painful as breathing hurts and tissues start to die. Neurotoxic venom, as the name suggests, effect the nervous system, leading to everything from siezures to death. Neurotoxic bites are the most deadly. Although we have these two wonderful different categories, no snake fits completely in each. Many snakes incorporate both neurotoxic and hemotoxic venom in their bites so when telling them apart one goes by which type is more predominant. For instance Ophiophagous hannah (King Cobra) has predominantly neurotoxic venom while Crotalus adamanteus (Eastern diamondback rattlesnake) has predominantly hemotoxic venom. http://reptilis.net/serpentes/venom.html Nov 16 07, 4:09 PM

AyatollahK

Thanks, zbeckabee. I added two sentences to the "anatomy" description in the main Wiki "mongoose" article to incorporate this information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongoose Nov 16 07, 5:00 PM

gmackematix

From the sources quoted so far, some mongooses certainly have a much higher than average tolerance for some snake venoms. However, it seems the full answer to the question as it stands can depend on what level of immunity we are accepting, which snake venom is involved, how it enters the mongoose and possibly which of the 30 or so mongoose species is involved. Nov 16 07, 7:49 PM

jobberone

Vipers by Old World and New World tend to have hemotoxic venom. It's called hemotoxic but can target blood vessels, muscle and other tissue including heart tissue. But some vipers have neurotoxic venom as well like the Mojave rattlesnake. Elapids generally have neurotoxic venom. However some have hemotoxic and neurotoxic venom and they can release these individually and even sequentially on demand. Venom can be cocktails of hemotoxins and/or neurotoxins and often are. They can be species specific but often vary not only regionally intraspecies but from snake to snake in a genus. Therefore it is likely that most species of mongooses are resistant to neurotoxic venom but they are not resistant to the venom from vipers. At least I know they are not immune to the Puff Adder regarding Meerkats, a species of mongoose. Feb 12 11, 10:40 PM