Brown spiders bite more than 7,000 people in Brazil every year, causing serious skin lesions and even death.
Luckily, a life-saving anti-venom is available, but it comes with its own risks – mostly to the animals involved in the production process.
For the BBC’s Health Check programme, I report from three Brazilian cities – Curitiba, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte – on a new, synthetic venom that could lead to a more humane solution.
Read the full BBC News article.