Giuseppe Puorto

• Bachelor of Applied Science
• Diretor at Instituto Butantan

The Painted Coral Snake Micrurus corallinus is one of the Brazilian species kept in captivity to obtain venom for antivenom production. Difficulties in establishing a sizeable breeding colony make it necessary to find alternatives that increase the reproductive efficiency of captive individuals. Here, we tested a semen collection protocol and chara...

A divulgação sobre animais peçonhentos é um desafio que pressupõe conceitos científicos equivocados, crenças populares e dificuldade ao acesso à informação. Relatamos a experiência sobre a concepção, criação e execução da Exposição “Animais Peçonhentos em Rede” no 2º Encontro Internacional Vital para o Brasil, em Campanha/Minas Gerais, que recebeu...

A total of 86 proven cases of Tomodon dorsatus bites admitted to Hospital Vital Brazil (HVB) of Butantan Institute, in São Paulo, Brazil, between 1945 and 2018, were retrospectively analyzed. The cases included were those in which the snake was brought to HVB and was correctly identified. Of the 86 cases of snake bites, it was possible to describe...

The genus Hepatozoon represents one of six genera in the hemogregarine group. Some studies in snakes indicated effects in the host, from slight influences on fitness to severe effects on growth rate, reproduction and offspring survival rates. Diagnosis and identification are usually through blood smear analyses; but not all infected animals show pa...

Atresia is a process of cell death or apoptosis of the majority of ovarian follicles, known by a variety of morphological or pathological conditions. A large number of atretic eggs was released by diferent groups of captive females snakes, in the Laboratory of Ecologia and Biological Museum, from Instituto Butantan. Lipoperoxidation induces tissue...

This book is a scientific dissemination work, focusing on children. Here we tell the story of the Biological Museum of the Butantan Institute, a centenary research institution in Brazil, famous for its studies with venomous snakes and the manufacture of serums and vaccines. We list natural history informations about some snakes species that can be...

Poco se conoce sobre la biología de Simophis rhinostoma (Schlegel, 1837). No existe información substancial al respecto de su dieta, apenas que se alimenta de anuros y, en cautiverio, hay registros de la ingestión de lagartos. Presentamos el primer relato de la ingestión de peces por S. rhinostoma, un colúbrido que habita los dominios de la Mata At...

The biology of Simophis rhinostoma (Schlegel, 1837) is poorly known.There are no enough information about its diet, just about feeding on anurans and, in captivity, there are records of lizards ingestion. We present the first record of fish ingestion by S. rhinostoma, a colubrid inhabiting the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado areas, also some behavior a...

The Neotropical snake Siphlophis worontzowi was described based on a single specimen from Rio Amanã, Ama-zonas state in the western portion of the Brazilian Amazon, but has subsequently become known from Bolivia and Peru as well. Here, we report a new morphological data set of S. worontzowi (meristic, morphometric, pholidosis, colour pattern, and h...

O presente Manual define as normas técnicas que nortearão as ações e os serviços públicos de saúde a serem desenvolvidos e executados no Brasil para a prevenção, a proteção e a promoção da saúde humana, quando do envolvimento de riscos de transmissão de zoonoses e de ocorrência de acidentes causados por animais peçonhentos e venenosos, de relevânci...

Peru is strategically located in South America, sharing borders with Ecuador, Bolivia, Co- lombia, Brazil, and Chile, where the Rufford Foundation has supported over 400 projects (Peru 91, Ecuador 46, Bolivia 44, Colombia 89, Brazil 122, and Chile 56). Since many Rufford-supported projects are conservation-driven, we took this opportunity for grant...

Resumo Objetivo – Apresentar a primeira lista de serpentes existentes no Parque Natural Municipal Corredores da Biodiversidade de Sorocaba – PNMCBio, SP, Brasil. Métodos – As coletas aconteceram no decorrer de um ano (2014/2015) através de armadilhas de interceptação e queda (pitfall) em linha reta e buscas ativas. Para complementar, utilizou-se os...

O Instituto Butantan, tradicional instituição de produção de biofármacos, pesquisa científica e difusão do conhecimento, tem procurado ampliar seu atendimento ao público que conta, além de museus, com uma ampla área verde interna para visitação. Nota-se grande potencial na área do Parque do Instituto Butantan para abordagem de temáticas relacionada...

DURISSUS (neotropical rattlesnake): REPRODUCTION. Crotalus durissus is the only rattlesnake species in Brazil (Campbell & Lamar, 2004). Its reproductive cycle is seasonal and parturition occurs from December to March, during the summer (Almeida-Santos & Salomão, 1997; 2002; Barros et al., in press). Herein we present a new record of a litter of C....

Imantodes cenchoa (Duméril, 1853) is an arboreal, nocturnal and oviparous xenodontine snake, which feeds on amphibians and lizards. It is found in Central and South America, including northern and central Brazil. In this work, we investigated the relationship between topographic anatomy and habitat in I. cenchoa. Twenty specimens (13 non pregnant f...

The subject venomous snakes is pointed out as a problem in science education textbooks in Brazil, due to the high rate of conceptual mistakes. Aiming to help teachers in that subject, we analyzed a total of 27 textbooks published in the period 1982 to 1999. The criteria used in the conceptual analysis were based scientific correction and the presen...

We use mitochondrial DNA sequences to infer the origin and phylogenetic position of the Lesser Antillean species of the pitviper genus Bothrops, B. caribbaeus and B. lanceolatus. The two species form a monophyletic group, which in turn forms the sister clade to the Bothrops asper-atrox complex. High levels of sequence divergence among the Caribbean...

The distribution of corticotropin-releasing hormone in the brain of the snake Bothrops jararaca was studied immunohistochemically. Immunoreactive neurons were detected in telencephalic, diencephalic and mesencephalic areas such as dorsal cortex, subfornical organ, paraventricular nucleus, recessus infundibular nucleus, nucleus of the oculomotor ner...

Phylogeographic studies using mitochondrial DNA sequence information are frequently used as the principal source of evidence to infer species boundaries. However, a critical analysis of further evidence is essential to test whether different haplotype clades identify different species. We demonstrate a hypothesis-testing approach, using a combinati...

Oxyrhopus guibei Hoge and Romano, 1977 normally has terrestrial habits and nocturnal activity. This snake is found in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Parana. Present work is a sequence of the previous study published in Biomedical Research (1999; 10: 35-40) and analyses body morphology and allometry in O. guibei usi...

Less than 10 cases of bites by Philodryas olfersii (Colubridae) have been reported in the literature. In this study, 43 patients admitted to the Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, Brazil, with the diagnosis of P. olfersii bite from 1982 to 1990 were reviewed. The 32 male (74.4%) and 11 female (25.6%) patients presented mainly from November to February...

Oxyrhopus guibei Hoge & Romano, 1977 normally has terrestrial habits and nocturnal activity. This snake is found in Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Säo Paulo and Parana and has been studied mainly from ecological perspectives. In this study of cardiac morphology and allometry in O. guibei we used 40 adult animals (20 males and 20 fem...

The crowned snake Tantilla melanocephala is a small fossorial sonorine snake, widely distributed through South America. Dissection of 186 specimens, combined with observations of captive specimens, provided information on the natural history of this species in southeastern Brazil. Females attained larger body sizes than males. Apparently T. melanoc...

In the course of cloning abundant cDNAs from the South American coral snake Micrurus corallinus venom gland, we characterized a cDNA coding for a putative natriuretic peptide. All the natural natriuretic peptides described so far, possess a ring structure composed of 17 amino acids formed through an S-S bridge which is extended at the N-terminus by...

Two new species of Clelia are described from Brazil: Clelia quimi sp. n., from southern, southeastern, and west-central Brazil, and Clelia montana sp. n., which is probably restricted to the highlands of northwestern São Paulo and southern Minas Gerais. Clelia quimi appears to be closely related to C. bicolor, being distinguished from the latter by...

The jararacuçu, one of the most dreaded snakes of Brazil, southern Bolivia, Paraguay and northeastern Argentina, is a heavily-built pit viper which may grow to a length of 2.2 m. Up to 1000 mg (dry weight) of highly-lethal venom may be milked from its venom glands on a single occasion. It has accounted for 0.8% to 10% of series of snake bites in Sã...

This is the first book to present a multidisciplinary approach to venomous snake research. As well as focusing on the medical aspects of snake venoms and the effects of snakebites, the book examines the evolution and ecology of venomous snakes, which are so crucial in the search for snakebite antidotes. The book has been written to be accessible to...

We analyze the systematics of pitviper populations normally assigned to the species Bothrops atrox, B. moojeni, and B. marajoensis using multivariate analysis of morphological characters. Most populations of B. moojeni are clearly distinct from B. atrox, but there are phenotypically intermediate populations where the ranges of the two forms meet, s...

One hundred and seventy‐three adults and twenty‐six juveniles of Crotalus durissus were examined by removing the stomach contents and faecal material. Rattlesnakes were most active between April and May (autumn) (unimodal type), but most intensive feeding occurred during summer and autumn (February to May). Juveniles were observed to feed from late...

The pitviper Bothrops insularis is endemic on the Queimada Grande Island (24° 30’ S ‐ 43° 42’ W, southeastern Brazil). Since the description of the species (Amaral, 1921), which contained a synopsis of its biology, no intensive studies have been carried out (although hundreds of specimens have been gathered), except for research on venom and sexual...

The venom of P. olfersii has high hemorrhagic, edema-inducing and fibrin(ogen)olytic activities. It is devoid of thrombin-like, procoagulant, phospholipase A2 and platelet aggregating enzymes. The main activities are metalloproteinases inhibited by metal chelators (EDTA and 1,10-phenanthroline) and sulfhydryl compounds (DTT and cysteine). The hemor...

Os autores obtiveram a transferência do Hepatozoon tupinambis (Laveran e Salibeni, 1909) parasita do lagarto Teiidae, Tupinambis teguixin, L., para a serpente cascavel, Crotalus durissus terrificus (Laur.), alimentando-a com mosquitos experimentalmente infectados. o parasita mantém os seus caracteres morfológicos no animal receptor, nos limites do...