Snake rearing, most lucrative business – Official
Dr Abubakar Ballah, the Officer-in-Charge of Snakebite Treatment and Research Centre, Kaltungo, Gombe state, has called on Nigerians to embrace snake rearing to enhance their economic status. Snake Ballah told newsmen in Kaltungo on Friday that snake rearing is one of the most profitable trades in the world. According to him, the high cost of snake venom used by pharmaceutical industries in producing anti snake venom has glorified the business. “An ounce of the venom of a Carpet viper snake is 500 USD, that of Cobra and Puff adder snakes cost 400 USD. “The good thing about the business is that you can find market easily through the internet,” the official said. Ballah said that apart from the production of anti snakebite venoms, the pharmaceutical industries use the snake venoms in the production of anti hypertensive, cancer and ulcer drugs. Besides selling the snakes to pharmaceutical firms, he disclosed that the reptiles could be sold to earn foreign ex...