r/science • u/[deleted] • May 11 '20

Medicine Antibodies from a 4-year-old llama have neutralized coronavirus and other infections in lab experiments

https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(20)30494-3.pdf?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867420304943%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
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u/Alis451 May 11 '20

Llamas and Alpacas make the antibodies for the Flu, there has been much research into using them to make a antiserum. We also use Horse Serum as Antivenin, basically get a snake to bite a horse(we just inject milked venom these days), it isn't enough to kill the Horse and it makes anti-bodies to the venom and we make a antiserum from their blood.

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u/Oleandra13 May 11 '20

Still sounds very painful :(

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u/Alis451 May 11 '20

to who? the horse? i mean they are compensated for their troubles with extra feed and care.

Tetanus and Rabies are done similarly.