Abstract

Snakes have been closely associated with society for millennia, being used for many purposes including clothing, medicines and as a food source. This review examines some of the interactions of snake with society and, where applicable, compared meat quality and performance measurements with other livestock species. The review also explored the possible commercialization of snake meat as a food source in cold climates. From the information gathered, snake meat was considered moist, tough and fibrous with intense flavor and displayed color properties similar to pork and poultry. Snake meat had higher levels of leucine, isoleucine, methionine and polyunsaturated fatty acids, but lower levels of tryptophan compared to other livestock meats. In addition, snakes had solid performance measurements as evident with good metabolizable energy for maintenance and feed conversion ratios and, unexpectedly, the information reviewed showed that a theoretical production system for snake meat could be a potentially profitable industry in cold climates.

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