LUCRĂRI TIINłIFICE MEDICINĂ VETERINARĂ VOL. XLII (2), 2009, TIMIOARA 228                                        ! 1 University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Discipline of Infectious Diseases, Mănăstur street nr. 315, 400372 Cluj Napoca, Romania; 2 Laboratoire « Evolution & Diversité Biologique », UMR 5174 CNRS/UPS, UPS Toulouse III, Batiment IVR3, 118 Route de Narbonne, F31062 Toulouse, France; 3 LAM Foundation, Ilieni, Romania E1mail: lorandkobolkuti@yahoo.com "##$%& The ability to collect quality blood samples is essential in any animal class. The production of poor1quality blood data can be useless or, even worse, misleading to the clinician (Mader D., 1996). The two common sites for venipuncture in snakes are the caudal (ventral tail) vein and the heart. Venipuncture in reptiles is generally a blind technique. In this study we compare the usefulness of two blood sampling techniques in captive horned viper ( ) (n=18): tail venipuncture and cardiocentesis. We noted total time (in seconds) of blood collection and the number of attempts needed. ’& ()%*+, tail venipuncture, cardiocentesis,     is a venomous viper species found in southern Europe throughout the Balkans and parts of the Middle East. It is reputed to be the most dangerous of the European vipers due to its large size, long fangs (up to 13 mm) and high venom toxicity (3). In reptiles, common sites for obtaining blood sampling are the jugular, subcarapacial, brachial or central tail veins in chelonia, postoccipital venous sinus and fin vessels in sea turtles, palatine or coccygeal ventral veins, and heart mainly in snakes or coccygeal ventral veins in lizards (1). Other techniques such as toe1 and nail1clipping or orbital sinus bleeding are rarely used nowadays (1). According to Mader D. (2006) in venomous snakes the preferred technique for blood collection is the caudal tail vein venipuncture and cardiocentesis. $-’%.$/+ $0* #’-1)*+ The animals were divided in two groups. In snakes belonging to Group 1 (n=9) we tried the caudal tail vein venipuncture and in vipers reside to Group 2 the cardiocentesis. All horned vipers used in the experiments exhibited a healthy appearance (i.e., had no major injuries, no symptoms of diseases or dehydration) at the