(flute whistling) - [David] Most people in my country have never experienced an encounter with a venomous critter.

In Brazil, such encounters are far more common, be it scorpions, spiders, or snakes.

Bites and stings are a problem especially outside the urban areas.

For many decades, the Brazilian government has sponsored sophisticated research into the production of antivenom, an area in which Brazil leads the world.

(gentle ambient music) - [Narrator] Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was provided by Agnese Haury.

Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was also provided by the Guilford Fund.

(exciting music) (firecrackers whistling) (people cheering) (people chatting) (engine revving) (people laughing) (bird squawking) (birds chirping) (people chattering) (firecrackers whistling) (upbeat percussive music) - The city of Santos is located on the Atlantic Coast about an hour and a half's drive from Sao Paolo.

It is situated in what's called the Mata Atlantica, the Atlantic rainforest, one of the world's great rainforest habitats.

It's become Brazilian policy to accelerate deforestation.

And when that happens, more and more people move in to former forest and they create an ideal habitat for some critters like scorpions and poisonous snakes.

An hour and a half drive north and on a plateau is one of the world's largest cities, Sao Paolo.

Within this sprawling metropolis, the Brazilian government has founded the Butantan Institute.

It produces antivenom used throughout the world.

Before we get to the institute, we stopped to visit some street art.

It demonstrates the deep significance of venomous reptiles throughout the country.

(birds chirping) These snakes we see here in this particular panel, two of them are coral snakes, which are fascinating snakes.

They're red, black, and yellow.

But you can't tell which is a true coral snake and a false one, so you have to leave 'em alone.

They're fascinating, cobra, very poisonous.

The green one is a tree viper that is somehow associated with the night.

It's only out at night.

The yellow one is a representation of the yellow lancehead found only on Snake Island.

(birds chirping) Snakes are mostly tropical and semi-tropical.

That's where most of them live.

And throughout archeological sites in the Americas, we find way back in the origins, a fascination with those snakes.

From Mesoamerica, from the Southwestern US, all the way down into the civilizations in Brazil, native peoples recognize the power of snakes.

And somehow, that hits a very deep part of our brain and we see their representations everywhere.

(upbeat music) It's a long drive across the city to the campus of the Butantan Institute.

Waiting there is a colleague of mine, an expert on venom.

Leslie Boyer has been a leading scientist, studying how critters produce venom and how we can make antivenom for those who have been bitten or stung.

- Exactly, how it all got started.

The Butantan Institute is arguably the most famous venom institute on the Planet Earth.

You can't be in my specialty and not wish for a visit here.

(Voiceover speaks a foreign language) We've all heard about their history going back over a hundred years and the study of snakes and venoms and antivenoms.

What amazes me is the breadth and depth, the sheer biomass of scientists working here.

The Butantan Institute is one of the few places in the world that simultaneously does research, education, and actual production of antivenom.

Almost no place else does that.

Venom and antivenom production here at Butantan are at their fundamental the same as everywhere in the world, in that we take a venomous creature, we extract venom, we use the venom to immunize a mammal, we collect the serum or the plasma from that mammal, and we turn that into antivenom.

- [David] This was the early snake collection.

- [Leslie] Yeah, they've got snakes in jars for people to study and learn the different types of snake.

- This one shows the snake den, you might call it, but they had it outside.

- It does.

Yeah, yeah, look, you see these little igloos?

Those are what they call snake houses.

They would have a snake show right here where a man would go in and lift up a snake and show the audience and maybe even collect venom right there.

Things were different.

- And this started in 1945.

- 1945 when the US was just barely figuring out what antivenoms were.

They already had a hospital here just for treating snakebite and spider bite.

(Giuseppe speaks in foreign language) - [Interpreter] The Butantan Institute was created in 1901 by Dr. Vital Brazil.

He discovered that each bite or sting requires specific antivenom.

Today, the institute provides medical treatment for venom-related incidents for the state of Sao Paolo and telemedicine to the rest of the world.

We produce antivenoms for poisonous snakes, spiders, and scorpions.

Another important role of this institute is the development of immunological applications to other health problems.

Butantan scientists research venoms and the animals that produce those venoms.

In doing so, we produce medicines useful in immunology and try to improve those medicines.

That's one of our pillars of innovation here.

We also investigate public health matters such as dengue.

(children chattering) Here at the institute, we also try to help the public understand how we apply science for the public good so that the public is aware of what we do.

We accomplish this through our four museums.

Dr. Vital Brazil's vision was not only to develop an entire process beginning with venom extraction all the way to producing antivenoms, but also to educate the public on how important venomous animals are to the environment.

- This is a temporary exhibit of some of the venomous snakes and non-venomous snakes.

This has a fine cross-section of some of the most dangerous snakes in the Americas, if not the most dangerous snakes.

This is a new one for me.

This is Bothrops moojeni, named after somebody named Moojen.

Sensational for the sparkling color on its back.

This one would be so well hidden on the branches.

If you didn't know it was there, you might completely miss it.

It is mildly venomous, but it's not dangerous.

- [Leslie] Butantan maintains a collection of biological specimens that is world-renowned.

(Antonio speaking foreign language) - This is a good place in here.

This is the serpent, the poisonous snake collection in here.

- [Leslie] As patients come in with a dead snake saying this is what bit me or as people pick up a snake that is in the environment somewhere and they're worried, they bring it here and Butantan doesn't throw anything away.

For years and years and years, they have kept the old specimens for reference, for study, for statistical observations.

It's a massive collection, row after row after row, of snakes, spiders, scorpions.

(Antonio speaks in foreign language) - [Interpreter] Today, we have one of the largest specimen collections in all of Latin America.

We have over 400,000 animals preserved in alcohol.

The largest group of which are arachnoids, spiders.

We have 250,000 arachnoids.

Snakes represent 40,000 of our specimens.

The smallest collection of specimens are amphibians and insects mostly because we have fewer bites and stings with insects than with spiders and snakes.

- This includes a collection of, believe it or not, rattlesnakes.

And Brazil has only one species, but they're very poisonous.

(Antonio speaks in foreign language) - [Interpreter] The animals brought here alive are the more common ones.

When they arrive, we send them over to our herpetology laboratory.

There, they are kept alive and are used to extract venom to produce antivenom.

We have a considerable number of specimens from all over Brazil.

We also have large collections from Chile, Peru, and Northern Argentina.

We lend specimens and have a healthy exchange program with the museums and laboratories throughout the world.

Most of these exchanges are for scientific research.

- This is the most dangerous snake in Brazil.

And usually, the bite causes death.

This is called the bushmaster, it's what we call it.

Sometimes, the bushmasters are so big, up to 10 feet long, that they can't fit the whole snake in, so they have to just remove the skin and put it in to keep it for the biological record.

(Antonio speaks in foreign language) Oh, this is the spider room.

Yeah, people often are more scared of spiders than they are of snakes.

So this is what we call the tarantula and it's the largest spider in the world.

They do have venom, but it's not particularly dangerous.

- Armadeira.

- Armadeira.

(Antonio speaks in foreign language) These are really dangerous.

(Antonio speaks in foreign language) So you immediately get extreme pain from a bite.

(samba music) This is the arthropod laboratory where they extract venom.

- The arachnology laboratory, which is an entire building for its own purposes, is a combination of a research and a production facility.

You find special collections of rare spiders and scorpions for research purposes, and then vast numbers of the most important scorpions and spiders that are used here for production of antivenom.

- So we have to put the venom gland of the animal direct in the electric shock to stimulate the muscle to expel the venom through the sting.

The yellow scorpion are living much better in the urban area than in the forests and the woods.

So they are eating the cockroaches.

They are being attracted by the garbages.

The encounter between humans and scorpions are more and more frequently.

And we have something about 140,000 cases of accidents.

The scorpion sting is usually not very, very dangerous for adults but for children and for elders is very dangerous.

It can lead to death.

So as soon as this venom are milked, we maintain in freezers.

And then we dry the venom.

Okay, we have just the venom powder.

Here, we have something about 30,000 scorpions.

So they don't need males to reproduce.

Only the female can clone themselves every three to four months.

- This is a mother who gave birth yesterday.

- Yesterday, yes.

- And there are about 20 freshly born little baby scorpions.

It seems so odd, but we know that all of the offspring are females because there are only females for this particular species of scorpion.

This is the notorious armadeira spider.

- Yes, it's a very aggressive spider species and it causes death in childrens also.

- What are the symptoms?

- It's very similar to scorpion accident.

So it's very painful at the site of the bite and the pain can radiate up to the arm.

Armadeira spiders are the biggest spiders we have here in the lab, so we can extract more venom from these spiders than from Loxosceles or from scorpions.

We have to freeze the venom as soon as we extract it because it's very volatile.

For the armed spider and scorpions, it's the venom that scare the people most because of the pain.

But in my opinion, the worst venom is the brown recluse spider because it's very quiet.

So you got bitten by the spider and after one or two day, you notice that you have something wrong in your skin and can evolve to a renal failure.

So in my opinion, brown recluse spider is the worst venom.

(birds chirping) (gentle music) - [David] If we are lucky, we may get to see some venom extraction here.

(man speaking in foreign language) - [Interpreter] The procedure we follow for venom extraction is standard throughout the world.

We take them out of their cages, identify them, and weigh them for quality control.

So if we need to modify their feeding schedule, we can.

After we weigh them, we place them in a container that contains a tranquilizing gas to put them to sleep.

After five minutes, we take them out, extract venom, examine their tail, and right after extraction, we sanitize their mouths.

Then, we do biometrics.

We measure from the head to their cloaca, then we measure from the head to the tail.

This way, we can follow the growth and development of the animal.

After this is done, we return the animal to its container.

- When they open the cage, the animals tend to be aggressive, particularly the species that he's handling right now.

It's Bothrops moojeni, which is one of the most aggressive snakes.

They're very careful in pressing the venom glands to get the drops out and with great precision.

These are highly trained technicians.

They're dealing with some extraordinarily toxic venom.

It's to their interest to make sure that these animals are very well-maintained, healthy because they're venom is extraordinarily important.

And a healthy snake produces good amounts of venom.

A sick snake does not.

(birds chirping) (snake rattling) The big Bothrops, the Bothrops moojeni, which is an aggressive big snake, has yellowish venom.

The rattlesnakes have clearer venom.

So there's a coloration that varies from snake to snake.

(Kathleen speaks in foreign language) So this is a almost 10-year old snake and this is a health inspection and treatment.

(Kathleen speaks in foreign language) The use of the tube is an ingenious idea.

It protects the snake from injury so that it's not thrashing around, but it also protects the handler so they can provide the treatment in complete safety.

(Kathleen speaks in foreign language) - [Interpreter] This female is a little bit underweight.

She doesn't eat enough so we will inject her with some serum subcutaneously.

- Each one of these boxes has a venomous snake in it.

In the collection here of snakes for production of venom, there are over a thousand different snakes, many different species, because each species has its own venom.

(snake rattling) (Kathleen speaks in foreign language) - [Interpreter] In Brazil, we have 30 different species of Bothrops, the fer-de-lance relatives.

And of those 30, we keep 10 here.

Five of those are used for extracting venom.

It's the same with the rattlesnakes and the coral snakes.

The importance of this laboratory is the extraction of venom to produce antivenoms.

We also conduct research in pathology and reproduction of snakes.

We hope to become self-sufficient.

We don't want to depend on snakes other than the ones already here to be able to produce antivenoms.

Currently, the life expectancy of our snakes is even higher than in the natural world.

- This is a bushmaster, which is the largest venomous snake in the Americas.

They get up to 10 feet long and are extremely dangerous.

Fortunately, they are not terribly aggressive and they're very rare.

They require pretty much primary tropical forest and a large area.

It is a member of the genus Bothrops.

This is a coral snake.

It has a peculiar history, a criminal history here, in that she has bitten the director.

Fortunately, it was in a good place to get antivenom shots and had no permanent damage.

But this snake gives a good example of what's caudal luring, the movement of the tail to imitate the head.

And it will confuse a predator and grab the wrong end and then the other end can bite.

But they are related to cobras and are quite effective at injecting their venom even if they're not big strikers.

(percussive music) - The hospital is a very special little place.

A clinic that's been here for many years and that specializes in venomous bites and stings.

The doctors have a special camera that will do thermography, which is infrared heat detection at a very detailed level of the skin.

And so if you have a bite and it causes inflammation, the warmth of the inflammation will show up on the camera as bright red.

And the spread of the inflammation up the arm after the bite or sting helps the doctors to predict the severity of the venom injury.

(Carlos speaks in foreign language) - [Interpreter] This case here is a coral snake bite that caused a major neurological reaction.

15 minutes after this person was bitten, we took this thermograph picture.

30 minutes later, the patient experienced difficulty moving his arms and loss of sight.

So this shows us the systemic effect of the venom.

The patient was given an antivenom and 15 days later, as you can see here in the last thermographed image, had total recovery.

- In Brazil, there are a lot more snake bites than in the United States.

And so the number of vials of antivenom and the size of the budget devoted by the government to antivenom is a lot greater.

In the United States, we have maybe between 5 and 12,000 venomous bites and stings per year.

And here, it's in the hundreds of thousands that they know of.

That allows production to benefit from the scale of manufacturing, which contributes to the lower price overall as does the lower price of distribution by the government here.

(samba music) (tire rustling) - We don't often associate venom with amphibians but the institute studies them and their unusual use of the venom they produce.

We're looking for the amphibian building and the directions are here's a guy who looks like an amphibian expert.

(laughs) - [Leslie] Hello, there.

- On my hand is what's called a helmet-headed tree toad and it is considered now neither venomous nor poisonous but in between because it uses its venom, which is 40 times as toxic as the jararaca, the fer-de-lance, it uses it as a defense.

But it injects, but doesn't inject, and the explanation is arcane.

Whoo!

- That's a (indistinct).

- This is poisonous because they have no medium to inject the venom like the snakes or like the spiders or scorpions.

- So when the predator bites the head, it activates the system.

- Yes, yes, exactly.

And when the predator bite, immediately the spines enter in the mucosa of the predator.

- Oh, it's like an injection.

- [Carlos] Yes.

- So it's not venomous because it in itself is important, it is activated by the predator.

- Yes, yes, exactly.

- So it's not venomous, it's not poisonous, but you shouldn't go around eating them if you're a predator.

- Yeah.

- Because it will kill you.

Poison ivy is poisonous, but it's not venomous.

- Yeah, yeah.

- A snake with the injecting apparatus is venomous, but it's not poisonous because you can touch the snake and not get any of the venom, it has to be injected.

This is a tree frog from Eastern Peru from the Amazon portion of it that is used locally for its hallucinogenic properties.

(staff speaking in foreign language) (frog screeching) Here, we have a hissing bloating toad that has no venom.

So it's defense, instead of having venom, it inflates itself maybe three times it's natural size.

(people laughing) (frog screeching) - This is a great problem with dogs, little bites in this glands and the venom is- - It squirts.

- in the mouth of the little dog.

- [Carlos] The parotid glands in the legs.

- Usually, the males are bigger, it's common.

But in this case with the cururu toad, this is the female and this little puny critter is a male.

(upbeat percussive music) Brazil has one of the largest collection of venomous and poisonous critters in the world, snakes, scorpions, spiders, and frogs.

(frog screeching) They are all located here and people are doing research for the benefit of Brazilians and the rest of the world.

Join us next time "In the Americas" with me, David Yetman.

(soft ambient music) (birds chirping) Volcanoes are found everywhere in the Americas and my home state of Arizona is no different.

Some of Arizona's volcanoes are quite young, some are less than a thousand years old.

They are part of the great Colorado Plateau and the Grand Canyon.

(water rushing) (boat engine purring) (upbeat music) These mosaics are individual.

They describe a particular species of critter which is, you can learn this way, you can learn about it.

- You could, some of them are a little bit fanciful but, yeah, you're right.

They've got representation from every major group of venomous animal.

(triumphant ambient music) (percussive music) - [Narrator] Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was provided by Agnese Haury.

Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was also provided by the Guilford Fund.

(upbeat music) Copies of this and other episodes of "In the Americas with David Yetman" are available from The Southwest Center.

To order, call 1-800-937-8632.

Please mention the episode number and program title.

Please be sure to visit us at inthemericas.com or intheamericas.org.

(gentle ambient music)