Upper Crust Vipers?

There is a report of a 'first genetic investigation' of the UK's Adders (Vipera berus) with the suggestion that populations might be becoming 'too inbred' and consequently prone to abnormalities (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/28/dwindling-adder-numbers-genetic-survey?INTCMP=SRCH ). The study sounds interesting but Britain's only poisonous snake has other problems such as a general public antipathy to the animal (the only species that has elicited a quote for me in 'Private Eye' -when the natural progeny of 'pregnant' snakes, removed from the Gower, were returned to their mother's location with allegedly 'dire consequences' for tourism). I have also locally come across harmless Slow worms (not even a snake) hacked to death with a spade on the basis they were 'clearly lethal vipers'. The adder is an adaptable animal with an extraordinary geographical range (Southern Europe to almost the Arctic Circle) facilitated by its 'live birth' reproductive mode. It generates its poison largely to help it predate mouse and rat populations (it would otherwise have no chance of dealing with such prey). The bite is painful but rarely fatal in humans (who are only bitten by accident when the snake feels itself threatened and cannot flee). There is an additional question about whether 'inbreeding' (poor genetic variability) is always detrimental. For example, local populations of House mouse (Mus musculus) can show as little genetic variability as highly inbred laboratory strains and they reproduce very efficiently.