[CholeraJoe]

You’re right. Before human antibody purification was perfected and recombinant DNA technology emerged, lots of antitoxins and antivenins were produced in horses. Humans who were allergic presented a tricky clinical problem.

You have a patient with a potentially fatal illness like a snakebite and in order to save them, you had to risk inducing another potentially fatal problem like anaphylaxis or serum sickness.

[vetvetdoug]

I say things like Tam Horsfall to young veterinarians and they look at me like I am speaking Greek. When I was in the USAF my Med Lab instructor beat the lab tests to confirm serum sickness into us repeatedly. Of course, serum sickness from tetanus antitoxin in a horse is unlikely since the source of the antitoxin is a horse...