Meeting Abstract

P3.91  Tuesday, Jan. 6  Does prey envenomation improve digestive performance in Agkistrodon piscivorus? HAMPTON, P M; University of Louisiana, Lafayette pmh3227@louisiana.edu

Pitviper venom is a combination of neurotoxins and proteolytic enzymes. It has been hypothesized that the tissue-destroying qualities of crotaline venom have evolved to enhance the digestion of large prey in cool environments, in which ingested prey may putrify and kill the predator before digestion is completed. The results of previous experiments intended to test this hypothesis have been contradictory and inconclusive. Recently, a thorough study found no effects of venom on specific dynamic action or gut passage time. In the experiment relatively small prey were provided as meals with ambient temperature equal to or above preferred activity temperature for the species. When large prey are consumed and ambient temperatures are sub-optimal venom may significantly enhance prey digestion. I am studying the effects of pitviper venom on the post-prandial metabolic rate and gut passage time in cottonmouth snakes (Agkistrodon piscivorus) provided large meals and sub-optimal temperatures. Specifically, I am measuring post-prandial oxygen consumption by the snakes after they have eaten rats injected with reconstituted lyophilized A. piscivorus venom (experimental animals) or injected with saline solution (control animals). I expect that envenomated prey will be digested faster and will elicit a lower cost of digestion (specific dynamic action) than prey that are not envenomated.