Welcome to The Chicago Herp Society

Sri Lanka has been historically plagued with human suffering from venomous snakebite. The problem still persists, as it has been estimated that 143,750 vials of antivenom would be required to provide adequate treatment for the 37,100 snakebite patients in the year 2000. Currently available antivenoms for Sri Lanka snakebite patients are produced and manufactured using the venoms of the Big Four Asian species: cobra (Naja naja), Russell's viper (Daboia ruselii), common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), and the saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus). Although the same species are endemic to Sri Lanka their venom profiles are different than those of the same species on mainland Asia. Further, the hump-nosed viper (Hypnale spp.), common in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, is not included in the production of these antivenoms. Antivenoms currently distributed in Sri Lanka do not include Hypnale, and are prepared using venoms from non-indigenous speices that are likely to differ from those of Sri Lankan snakes, representing a problem for the treatment of envenomations in this country. Thus, Sri Lanka's need for optimally efficacious antivenom has driven the efforts to achieve the development of a polyspecific antivenom for the country using the venom from Sri Lanka's indigenous medically important snakes via combining the scientific, technological and economical resources from Costa Rica and the United States in collaboration with Sri Lankan official governmental agencies, legal counsels, environmental, medical and veterinary academic institutions, and religious and cultural leaders.

Dan has been actively involved with studying venomous snakes since he was a young boy. His interest in herpetology and the toxicology of venoms was spurred early on by the late Sherman A. Minton Jr., MD, a friend and mentor until his passing in 1999. Dan's interest in the conservation, and study of the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) in the Upper Mississippi River Valley has been a lifetime commitment. Professionally, he has been busy as Immediate Past President of the North American Society of Toxinology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, and Professor of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Minnesota. Dan's academic research has been in the area of immunotoxicology and has involved the development of immunotherapeutic agents such as antibodies against environmental toxins like PCBs, and vaccine development for nicotine addiction and toxicity. He has contributed to the scientific literature as an author for book chapters involving immunotherapeutics, animal toxins, and venomous snakebite, and has coauthored two books, Venomous Bites from Non-Venomous Snakes: A Critical Analysis of Risk Management of Colubrid Snake Bites, and Venomous Snakebite in the Western United States. He served as Envenomation Section Chair with the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology 2002-07, and is an author and member of the Medical Advisory Committee to the Online Antivenom Index. In recent years he has used his immunotoxiclogy background in research toward the development of antivenom for treating snakebite victims in the country of Sri Lanka where snakebite is a major public health problem. This has involved travel to Sri Lanka and collaboration with Costa Rica's Instituto Clodomiro Picado, University of Costa Rica. Importantly, he spends as much time out in the field as possible where he is most content.