WHIGHAM — The Whigham Community Club wants the public to know the health and educational benefits of their annual Rattlesnake Roundup on Jan. 26.

Ken Darnell, who operates a venom production laboratory in Gordon, Alabama said there are numerous public benefits to the roundup of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes.

“(Snake venom) is used almost daily around the world in hundreds of places,” said Darnell, who will be attending the roundup to answer questions.

Darnell said major uses of snake venom include the scientific study of chemical enzymes and the development of antivenin and new drugs.

Part of why Darnell will be attending the event is to allay concerns from individuals who claim the roundup has little beneficial purpose and harms rattlesnake populations.

Last year the Center for Biological Diversity presented a petition with more than 44,000 signatures to the Community Club asking for the event to come to an end.

“The eastern diamondback continues to be pushed toward extinction by hunting pressure, habitat loss and road mortality,” the group said in a statement. “Scientific studies over the past decade have documented range-wide population declines and significant range contractions for the eastern diamondback.”

Darnell said populations of eastern diamondbacks are stable and that the impact of roundups such as Whigham’s are “minuscule and have good purpose.”

“If I thought for a minute that their activities were diminishing the population of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, which I care a lot about, I wouldn’t have worked with them from the beginning,” Darnell said. “But I know that’s not true.”

Darnell said he personally invited critics of the roundup to the event to answer their questions.

“(I even offered) to come to their meetings to explain to them why that’s not true,” Darnell said. “Well, they know it’s not true. They just like to parrot that fallacy.”

The eastern diamondbacks captured in the roundup are “milked” for their venom, which is primarily used to manufacture two types of antivenins available in the United States and Canada for at least the last 25 years.

Venom from the eastern diamondbacks, along with additional venoms from western diamondbacks, cottonmouths and Mojave rattlesnakes, gives the antivenins the ability to treat most pit viper bites.

Darnell said the vast majority of snakebites in the United States are pit viper bites.

The antivenin is formed by injecting sub-lethal amounts of the four venoms into host animals, often sheep.

To combat the venoms, the host animals produce antibodies that are extracted from the sheep’s blood.

The extracted antibodies are then purified and introduced into a patient to neutralize the effects of a venomous snake bite.

Darnell said venom produced by eastern diamondbacks also has been used to develop new drugs such as Integrilin, used to treat heart attacks and strokes.

The roundup will begin at 8 a.m. at the Rattlesnake Roundup Grounds in Whigham Saturday, Jan. 26.