Rattlesnake Vaccine for Dogs

Our first product under development is a vaccine for pet dogs against rattlesnake venom. The vaccine is technically defined as a ‘toxoid vaccine’ meaning that the vaccine is made from snake venom itself and used to train your dog’s immune system to recognize and neutralize rattlesnake venom. The venom used in the vaccine is inactivated and poses no risk to your dog family member. When the vaccine is injected, your dog’s immune system recognizes the different toxins in the venom as foreign particles known as antigens. Having recognized new antigens to protect your dog against, your dog’s immune system will begin to develop protective molecules known as antibodies to identify, bind to, and neutralize venom components if they enter your dog’s body again.

Protecting your dog against rattlesnake venom relies on preparing it to fight against a wide range of antigens. Rattlesnake venoms are known to vary between different species of rattlesnakes, between snakes of different ages, and between groups of the same species of snake from different locations. Because of this immense amount of natural variation in rattlesnake venom, we have designed our vaccine to provide protection against venoms from a wide range of rattlesnake species from across a maximum range of geographic area.

You may already be familiar with a currently available vaccine for dogs against rattlesnakes. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be evidence that it provides strong protection against rattlesnake venom for your dog family members. Experiments conducted by ZooToxins L.L.C. researchers demonstrated that this currently available rattlesnake vaccine provides limited or no protection against the most commonly encountered species of rattlesnakes in the Western United States (Cates et al. 2014; published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Veterinary Research).

In developing our dog vaccine, we are dedicated to demonstrating how and where our vaccine provides protection. To do so, we are working currently to produce scientific data to demonstrate its effectiveness and safety for your dog family member. Preliminary data from our latest experiment will be presented at the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA), July, 2018 national meeting. These data indicate that our vaccine formulation provides robust cross-protection against the most common species of rattlesnakes in the Western United States. We will work to make this and other experimental data publically available as we are able. Please continue to visit this website for updated information.