Snake meat is considered very important and good food in some countries of the world, especially in Asia and Africa. People hunt and kill the animal for food.
While this may not be bad entirely, it’s is important for us to point out that it’s dangerous, and you expose yourself to harm by eating them. The purpose of this post isn’t to get you to stop eating something you like, but to get you to apply some caution while at it.
Here are some of the dangers of eating snakes.
DEATH AS A RESULT OF RESIDUAL VENOM
Under-cooked or under-roasted snake meat could lead to a severe case food poisoning especially when contaminated with residual venom. Sometimes, we think we’ve cooked them enough when we really haven’t. Residual venom deaths have been recorded around the world recently, because people don’t cook them enough.
EVEN WITH THEIR HEAD CUT OFF, THEY CAN STILL BITE, AND KILL HOURS LATER
A Chinese chef, Peng, found himself in this situation back in 2014; he even lost an arm.
He was preparing a special dish made from an Indo-Chinese spitting cobra, a rare delicacy. It was as he went to chuck the cobra’s head in the bin that it bit him, injecting Mr Peng with its flesh-killing, neurotoxic venom. He had the affected arm cut off due to too much damage, and to avoid it spreading.
PRICKS FROM POISONOUS BONES
Some snakes have an extensive network of bones that make handling their meat very dangerous. Sometimes it is safer to dispose than consume.
MICROBIOLOGICAL AND HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION
A study conducted by researchers of the World health Organization (WHO) showed that eating snakes can lead to sparganosis and trichinosis.
However, when it comes to snake meat the greatest threat comes from Salmonella and Staphylococcus.
If you have to eat this dangerous reptile, be very careful. Cook well, and dispose of the unnecessary parts.
Drama