PAPUA NEW GUINEA SNAKEBITE PROJECT
BLOOD AND GUTS

Today started and finished with Blood and Guts, to be precise snake blood and guts!
The first job of the day was the necropsy of the Papuan blacksnake (Pseudechis papuanus) which had died following its second operation. Cause of death was most likely related to the trauma it had sustained but it is likely the Ketamine anaesthetic had not helped. The problem was that the snake's spine, but not its spinal cord, was broken and deep general anaesthesia was the only way Simon could keep the snake still enough to suture the vertebra together. Ketamine is not good for snakes, they breath so shallowly for so long that they may simply stop breathing altogether, as the Papuan blacksnakes seemed to have done, but what else could have been done given the resources available in Port Moresby.

In the clinical laboratory I obtained all the data I required from the body: confirmation of sex as female; snout-to-vent length and total length, dorsal scale count at midbody; ventral and subcaudal scale counts. I then removed the venom glands and placed them in RNAlater, a gene stabilisation reagent, before opening up the body cavity. Simon and I examined the organs of the blacksnake. there were several areas of internal heamorrhage that were not adjacent to the two external wounds so clearly the snake had sustained more injuries than we had realised. There were also areas of calcification on the liver, which was strange.

Surgical removal of the venom glands of the Papuan blacksnake, Pseudechis papuanus
The venom glands with some muscle tissue still attached	and the glands stored separately in RNAlater reagent

We counted the eggs in the ovaries, five in the right, anterior, ovary, eight in the left, posterior, ovary, several of which also showed signs of haemorrhage. The eggs were also far less developed than we had originally believed from the external examination of the snake. Maybe she had started to re-absorb them due to her stress and trauma.

The right, anterior, ovary with five eggs and left, posterior, ovary with eight eggs and considerable small haemorrhages. the globular tissue is fat.

Finally I took several slivers of liver for DNA, placing the tiny pieces in 70% ethyl alcohol in Nalgene tubes, before fixing the rest of the snake in 10% formalin as a voucher specimen.

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