Why are horses used for producing antivenom?

Because they're big. Anti-venom is produced by injecting a live healthy animal with small amounts of the original venom (not enough to kill it, just to make it a little sick), so that the immune system will produce anti bodies to counteract the venom. Then blood is harvested from the animal and the antibodies are purified from it. read more

Anti-venom is produced by injecting a live healthy animal with small amounts of the original venom (not enough to kill it, just to make it a little sick), so that the immune system will produce anti bodies to counteract the venom. read more

He eventually discovered a process by which horses could be injected with venom to produce antibodies. He then extracted blood from those horses and injected it into the snake-bitten victim. Today, although techniques have improved over the century, the process remains more or less the same. read more

I have to agree with Lady Dreamer, they are not testing on the horse. They are using the horses' antibodies to create antivenom. The horses are not hurt unless there is a mistake. And a mistake can happen with dewormer, and noone has said we should quit deworming horses. read more