CRT – Campaign for Responsible Transplantation

Raises concerns about the risk of facilitating the transfer of devastating animal viruses to the human population through xenotransplantation. “The Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and

eminent scientists have acknowledged that xenotransplantation could

transmit deadly animal viruses to patients and the general public.

Baboon Cytomegalovirus was recently detected in stored blood from

a recipient of a baboon liver who died in 1992. Pigs can carry

bacterial, viral, fungal, protozoal and helminth pathogens, as well

as prion proteins, implicated in ‘mad cow disease’. Known pig viruses

include the porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) that have infected

human cells. In 1998-99, the novel Malaysian “Nipah” virus jumped

from pigs to humans, infected 269 people, killed over 100, left dozens

brain-damaged, and led to the mass slaughter of one million pigs. The

swine flu epidemic of 1918 killed 20-40 million people worldwide. We

know relatively little about pig viruses, or animal viruses in general.

There may be dozens waiting to be discovered.” Of course, several recent devastating infectious diseases, including HIV and gruesome hemorrhagic fevers such as Marburg and Ebola, presumably made the jump from animal reservoirs… On the other hand, are we merely tapping into a new virulent arena for human xenophobia?