Abstract
Naja haje arabica (Arabian cobra) is the major cause of snake-bite mortality in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The treatments of the snake bite envenomation occur by anti-snake venom produced in horses previously immunized with a mixture of venom. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the current study is to produce anti Naja haje arabica immunoglobulin in high titer from the yolk of chickens by immunization of two groups of white leghorn chickens (24 weeks old) with 30 mu g of Naja haje arabica emulsified in Freund's Complete Adjuvant. Chickens has been immunized with booster doses of increasing concentrations of venom at two weeks' time intervals to increase the antivenom titer in the egg yolk. The characteristic IgY band of 180 kDa was observed on SDS-PAGE of the final extracted product. The ELISA antibody values reached the plateau at 2nd weeks following 4th booster dose and remained significantly high up to the end of observation period. The measured antibody titers showed significant increase following the first, second, third booster doses. However, there were no differences between the third and the fourth booster doses. Western blot technique was used to evaluate the specificity of antivenom IgY antibodies. The LD50 of the Naja haje arabica venom has been found to be 0.4 mg kg(-1) body weight of white Swiss mice and 100% protection against 40 LD50 of Naja haje arabica venom could be obtained by 15 mg mL(-1) anti Naja haje Arabica specific IgY. The neutralizing power of the anti Naja haje arabica venom IgY and the absence of pyrogen, bacterial and fungal contaminations or toxic products, encourage the use of egg yolk as a cheap source of anti-venom polyclonal antibodies.