Currie B J
Tropical Medicine and International Health Unit, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
Ther Drug Monit. 2000 Feb;22(1):73-8. doi: 10.1097/00007691-200002000-00016.
Tropical Australia has an amazing diversity of venomous fauna, from "the world's most venomous creature," the multi-tentacled (chirodropid) box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri, to aggressive spiders whose venom remains to be characterized. All genera of highly venomous Australasian elapid snakes are present, except for tiger snakes. Most notable is the taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus), with the most efficient "snap-release" biting mechanism of any snake and venom components causing the full constellation of clinical envenoming features: coagulopathy from fibrinogen depletion (procoagulant), neurotoxicity (predominantly presynaptic neurotoxin) and rhabdomyolysis (myotoxin). Brown snakes (Pseudonaja textilis and P. nuchalis) now account for most snake bite fatalities in Australia, as a result of severe coagulopathy and a poorly defined early scenario of collapse, postulated to be caused by profound hypotension caused by transient myocardial dysfunction associated with prothrombin activation. Other venomous entities include paralyzing ticks, the blue-ringed octopus, stone fish and other marine animals with venomous spines, paralyzing cone shells, and a wide range of jellyfish including Carukia barnesi and possibly other four-tentacled (carybdeid) box jellyfish causing the Irukandji syndrome.
澳大利亚热带地区拥有种类惊人的有毒动物，从“世界上毒性最强的生物”——多触手（手曳水母科）箱形水母（曳手水母），到毒液特性尚待确定的攻击性蜘蛛。除虎蛇外，所有剧毒的澳大拉西亚眼镜蛇属蛇类均有分布。最值得注意的是太攀蛇（盾鳞棘背蛇），它拥有所有蛇类中最有效的“快咬快松”咬击机制，其毒液成分会引发一系列完整的临床中毒特征：因纤维蛋白原消耗导致的凝血障碍（促凝剂）、神经毒性（主要是突触前神经毒素）和横纹肌溶解（肌毒素）。棕蛇（杜氏剑蛇和褐背针尾蛇）如今在澳大利亚的蛇咬致死事件中占比最高，原因是严重的凝血障碍以及一种不明的早期虚脱情况，据推测这是由凝血酶原激活相关的短暂心肌功能障碍导致的严重低血压引起的。其他有毒生物还包括能使人麻痹的蜱虫、蓝环章鱼、石鱼以及其他带毒刺的海洋动物、能使人麻痹的芋螺，还有种类繁多的水母，包括卡鲁卡细斑指水母以及可能导致伊鲁坎吉综合征的其他四触手（灯水母科）箱形水母。
