RUSSIA: GROUP OF RUSSIAN HERPETOLOGISTS PREPARE TO RELEASE SPECIAL DRINK VENOM VODKA

Record ID: 862379

  • Title: RUSSIA: GROUP OF RUSSIAN HERPETOLOGISTS PREPARE TO RELEASE SPECIAL DRINK VENOM VODKA
  • Date: 23rd February 2003
  • Summary: (L!1) NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA (FEBRUARY 21, 2003) (REUTERS) SCIENTIST PREPARING CONTAINER FOR SNAKE VENOM SCIENTIST EXTRACTING VENOM FROM SNAKE / VENOM DRIPS INTO CONTAINER SLITHERING SNAKES SNAKES IN BOX (L!1) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE) (REUTERS) VODKA BOTTLES ON PRODUCTION LINE (L!1) NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA (FEBRUARY 21, 2003) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) VLADIMIR DUDAREV, DIRECTOR OF NOVOSIBIRSK HERPETOLOGY CENTRE "In any case, vodka with venom is a health drink. There isn't much poison in there but it will have a positive affect on the body." SNAKE SLITHERING ACROSS CAGE SCIENTIST WITH HAND FULL OF SNAKES
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NOVOSIBIRSK, MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • City:
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Business,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA9SECWQ9CFF40082J4S95UKZXU
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A group of Russian herpetologists are preparing to release a special drink, venom vodka. They claim that the new drink is a perfect medicine with a strong bite.
    Any work with poisonous snakes has to be done with care and precision.
    But that is especially true with this batch of vipers at the Novosibirsk Herpetology Centre in Russia's Siberia. Their poison scientifically collected in a vodka shot glass is producing some of the first test batches for a new snake venom vodka.
    Snake vodka is common around the world, but usually snake vodka involves stuffing a dead snake into a bottle of vodka.
    The Russian herpetologists plan to take the drink a step further, diluting some of the purest venom from wild vipers collected in the wilderness of Siberia, into pure vodka.
    They have already been working on the idea for almost 6 years, and are hoping to soon receive their patent.
    If this goes through, then they plan to mass produce the vodka and bring in revenue for their centre which, like much of the post-Soviet scientific community, has faced a tight funding crisis.
    Successful sales would allow the centre, which has previously used most all of the 2 kilograms of condensed venom that it produces each year for medicinal purposes, to expand their collection from 800 vipers to a maximum capacity of 8,000, meaning more venom, medicine, and vodka.
    Centre director Vladimir Dudarev says that the new vodka itself should be looked on as a medicine.
    "In any case, vodka with venom is a health drink. There isn't much poison in there but it will have a positive affect on the body," says Dudarev.
    But whether it will taste any better than other health drinks, such as freshly squeezed carrot juice with garlic, all depends on 800 slithering snakes.
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