Transplants from animals
Transplantation from one species to another is called xenotransplantation. For people, we call it animal-to-human transplantation.
The National Health and Medical Research Council decided in 2004 to stop xenotransplantation for five years. If it was allowed to go ahead after that time, pigs would be the preferred donor animal for use in humans because their organs are so similar to ours. However, they would need to be genetically modified to try and avoid rejection. This kind of research is underway overseas.
Other experimental procedures aim to use xenografts (cells or tissues transplanted from other species) to treat illnesses such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes and Parkinson's disease.
The first recorded instance of xenotransplantation was in 1682 when part of a dog’s skull was used to repair a Russian nobleman's broken skull. The first successful organ xenotransplant occurred in 1963, with chimpanzee kidneys being transplanted into 13 patients, however only one survived more than nine months. The first heart xenotransplant occurred in 1964, using a chimpanzee heart. In 1984, baby Fae received a baboon heart and lived for 21 days. In addition to primates, organs for xenotransplantation have been taken from pigs and sheep.
Concerns regarding xenotransplantation include the risk that the transplant tissue may carry unknown latent infections that once introduced into the recipient could be activated and lead to infection and the possibility that previously animal-specific infections could become pathogenic to humans. Work is underway to assess the extent of such risks.
You can find out more about xenotransplantation at: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/pdf/e54.pdf and http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/issues/xenotran.htm