Houston Venom Conference

The Zoo’s Indian wildlife conservation partner, Murthy Kantimahanti flew to Houston in April to assist the Zoo with the Houston Venom Conference, held at Baylor College of Medicine. Created in 2013, the conference serves to educate physicians, nurses, EMS professionals, and nature enthusiasts about the management of snakebites.

The Zoo brought Murthy in to share his experience on how to reduce snake bite incidents. Murthy has successfully eliminated snake bite incidents and retaliatory killing of snakes in 36 local villages in the Eastern Ghats, India. He has dispelled the fear around snakes by sharing guidelines on how to live safely alongside them and educating local communities on how snakes assist with rodent and disease control.