02/10/2026
Alert 🚨 New research on South Asian krait venoms ‼️
A new study compared the venoms of five krait species (Bungarus) from across South Asia to understand what they contain and what drives differences between species.
The researchers found that these venoms are dominated by neurotoxins, and that differences in venom composition were linked more strongly to evolutionary relatedness than to geographic distance.
These findings are especially relevant to snakebite treatment, as Indian polyvalent antivenom is produced using venom from only the Common Krait (Bungarus caeruleus), despite several other medically important krait species occurring in the region.
Members of CONCERN contributed to this collaborative study by securing Forest department permits, securing partial funding and also helping enable the field expeditions for finding these species within their known distribution ranges alongside venom sample collection that made this research possible.
Sahu, A., Malhotra, A., Visvanathan, A.C., Owens, J.B., Kuttalam, S., Santra, V., Vasudevan, K., 2026. Proteomic characterisation of the neurotoxic venoms of South Asian Kraits and an assessment of drivers of venom variation. Biochimie;
In Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biochi.2026.09.006