Milking venom from Australia's deadly marine animals

The Manila Times

Milking venom from Australia's deadly marine animals  Toxicologist Jamie Seymour runs a facility studying Australia's deadliest marine animals in a bid to understand them and keep people safe. His team milks sea creatures of their venom to create life-saving antivenoms.  Video by AFP  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #tmtnews  #australia  #marinelife #venom

Transcript

00:00 About the size of a sesame seed, these tiny Irukandji jellyfish pack a vicious punch.

00:07 And the immediate sting of one of those is, "Oh yeah, something stung me, I'll be fine."

00:14 And there's this 20 minute delay of what goes on and then all of a sudden, 15 to 20 minutes

00:18 down the track it's like, "Oh hell." Having been down that path 11 times, it feels like

00:24 someone takes a big elephant and sticks it on your chest so you can't breathe. I get

00:27 severe pins and needles like someone's got a red hot poker and they're sticking it in

00:31 their joints. Over the top of that is this feeling of impending doom. Zero being no pain,

00:36 10 the worst you can imagine. My last trip I had it around about a 13 or 14. If someone

00:43 had given me a gun, I'd have gone, "I'm off the planet."

00:46 Welcome to the so-called Stinger Shed, where James Cook University toxicologist Jamie Seymour

00:51 researches the dangerous aquatic creatures found in Australia's northern waters.

00:56 Australia is without a doubt the most venomous continent in the world. There's little doubt

01:00 of that. If you want a venomous marine animal, it's either in the facility where we presently

01:05 are or we've had it in the facility at some stage.

01:08 As part of their research, Seymour and his team also produced the world's only supply

01:13 of anti-venom for box jellyfish and stonefish by milking them for their toxins. The stonefish

01:19 is the world's most venomous fish, while the box jellyfish can kill a person within 10

01:24 minutes, though deaths from both are extremely rare.

01:28 The animal's got a series of 13 spines all the way along its back, and each of those

01:32 spines has got a venom gland at the base of the spine. So the spine's like a hypodermic

01:36 needle, so if you stand on it, the spine goes into your foot, and then as it goes deeper

01:40 then those two glands get compressed and venom squirts out the end of the spine.

01:45 Anti-venoms are shipped to hospitals around Australia and some Pacific islands, where

01:50 they can be administered if someone is stung or bitten by an animal.

01:53 If I injected that into your foot, you're going to be in a lot of pain. From that size

01:57 animal, yeah, you're going to be in pain for most of the day and you're probably going

02:00 to end up with some sort of necrotic tissue death where the venom's been injected into

02:04 you out of that quantity.

02:06 We have on average about five to six deaths per year in Australia from venomous animals,

02:14 and most of those are from snakes. So the chances of you being stung by an animal in

02:20 Australia or bitten is reasonable. The chances of dying, very, very, very small. We have

02:25 some of the best anti-venoms in the world.

02:28 Seymour has also noticed a change in where the creatures are showing up, with warming

02:32 ocean temperatures pushing these deadly jellyfish and other marine animals further south along

02:37 the Australian coast.

02:39 Again, when you plot when these things are occurring versus increasing water temperature,

02:44 there's this beautiful correlation, but it's just that, a correlation, but it makes sense.

02:50 We have a reasonable understanding of what goes on up here and what drives the season.

02:54 We have no idea what happens when you go to places like Maloolaba or Fraser Island. It

02:59 is only a matter of time before these animals turn up in large enough numbers, and the only

03:04 option we have down there at the moment is to shut the beach. Now can you imagine the

03:09 day they have to shut the beach at the Sunshine Coast? All hell will break loose.

03:13 Behind the painful sting, scientists suggest the venoms could be used for good. Seymour

03:19 says more research is needed, but there's evidence that jellyfish venom could be used

03:23 to treat a myriad of other health conditions.

03:25 So if you look at box jellyfish venom, there's 150, 200 different components in that venom.

03:31 We're playing around with one. We actually seem to have found a compound that, for us,

03:36 is curing rheumatoid arthritis in mice in under two to three weeks. This is huge.

03:43 Can we find the next cure to cancer, arthritis, things of that nature? So it's sort of an

03:49 open slather to do whatever you really want.

03:51 [silence]

03:58 [clicking]

03:59 [ding]

04:00 [silence]

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