The National Reptile Zoo says it has received a request for anti-venom to treat a 22-year-old man who was bitten by a snake in Dublin.

Director James Hennessy says the anti-venom to treat a bite from a puff adder is not available at the zoo, and must be imported from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK.

The zoo is the only licence holder of anti-venom in the State.

Mr Hennessy says there is currently a shortage, internationally, of anti-venom.

The patient, who is being treated in hospital, is thought to have been bitten by a privately-kept snake.