Pictured above is the Fer De Lance Snake, one of the regions most deadly.

Although the production of antivenom is at normal levels, an unexplained over demand is causing severe shortages, which worry farmers, its main consumers, who are requesting the drug’s importation.

Veterinary antivenom produced in Costa Rica is produced by the Clodomiro Picado Institute, whose director Alberto Alape-Girón notes that every year there is a plan for “how much will be produced based on demand from the previous year. The plan for 2012 was 4200 vials, of which a little over 1,000 remain to be put on the market and there are orders on a waiting list for about 600 vials.”

Nacion.com reports that “Clodomiro Picado sells each vial between $15 and $20, being a nonprofitable activity. Commercial enterprises who produce serum in Mexico and Europe sell it for U.S. $800 per vial.”

According to Clodomiro Picado “the shortage of this type of animal serum will not be solved until November, when the last production of the year is released.”

Source: Nacion.com