Taipan size. In 1950, Kevin Budden, an amateur herpetologist, was one of the first people to capture a taipan alive, although he was bitten in the process and died the next day. The snake, which ended up dying a few weeks later, was milked by Melbourne zoologist David Fleay and its venom used to develop an antivenom, which became available in 1955. In his book "Venom", which explores the development of a taipan antivenom in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s, author Brendan James Murray argues that only one person is known to have survived an Oxyuranus bite without antivenom: George
Inland taipan Cook University, the majority of components in the venom have not been characterized and little molecular research has been undertaken on taipan ("Oxyuranus") species at large. As of 2005, the amino acid sequences of only seven proteins from inland taipan have been submitted to SWISS-PROT databases. The mortality rate is high in untreated cases: Clinically, envenomation may represent a complex scenario of multiple organ system poisoning with neurotoxic symptoms typically dominating. Acute renal failure, rhabdomyolysis, and disseminated coagulopathy may also complicate the setting. The first local and general symptoms of a bite are local pain and variable non-specific effects which