We studied the immunoreactivity between venoms and commercial antiserums in four Chinese venomous snakes,Bungarus multicinctus,Naja atra,Deinagkistrodon acutus and Gloydius brevicaudus.Venoms from these four snakes shared common antigenic components,and most venom components expressed antigenicity in the immunological reaction between venoms and commercial antiserums.Commercial antiserums could cross-react with heterologous venoms.Homologous venom and antiserum expressed the highest reaction activity in all cross-reactions between venoms and antiserums.Species-specific antibodies (SSAbs) were obtained from four commercial antiserums by immunoaffinity chromatography.The cross-reacting components were immunoabsorbed while the antiserums were passed through the medium systems coated with heterologous venoms,and the unbound components (i.e.,SSAbs) were collected.The unbound components were found to have high specificity by westem blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).ELISA strips coated with SSAbs could successfully differentiate venoms from different snake species in about 35 min,signifying that these strips are clinically useful in rapid and reliable identification of venoms from the four species.