What is xenotransplantation?
Xenotransplantation is the transplanting of animal cells, tissues or organisms to other species (including humans) or mixing body materials between different animal species.

This includes such things as transplanting pigs’ hearts into baboons or humans.

Xenotransplantation poses a danger to humans
Transplanting living animal organs into humans bypasses the body’s natural barriers (such as skin or gastrointestinal tract) that prevent or reduce the chance of infection, thereby facilitating the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans.

Many deadly diseases such as Ebola, SARS, varieties of flu etc are thought to have originated in animal hosts before having drastic effects in humans.

Viruses that are harmless (or asymptomatic) to their animal hosts can be fatal when transmitted to humans. For instance, macaque herpes is harmless to macaque monkeys but lethal to people.

There is no way to screen for unknown viruses. It is impossible to guarantee a completely pathogen-free animal. An animal virus may mutate inside its human host or recombine with human viral elements creating new viruses that could be lethal. Bacteria, prions, fungi and parasites are other potential dangers that may be transferred from animals to humans via xenotransplants.

The pro-xenotransplant lobby is financially powerful.

The editor of Nature has stated:

“The momentum toward clinical trials of xenotransplantation is seemingly unstoppable, powered as it is by... multimillion dollar investment by biotechnology companies”.
(Nature, Vol. 391, p. 309.)

But Diatranz (an organisation based in Auckland) was initially rebuffed in its plan to transplant millions of pig cells into human diabetics. Even the Cook Islands rejected their attempts.

Giant pharmaceutical companies are eager to cash in on the promise of a booming xenotransplantation market, which has been estimated could quickly grow to be worth $US 6 billion annually.

Yet our health system would likely collapse in attempting to deal with the effects of a deadly plague caused by a xenogeneic virus in the human population.

Xenotransplantation and animal experiments
In attempts to prove xenotransplants 'safe' or 'effective' for use in humans, it has been proposed to use the results of xenotransplant experiments between non-human animals. However, this cannot work because each species of animal is a different biomechanical and biochemical entity. Each species suffers from different diseases in different ways, and may react differently to different drugs, chemical substances or viruses. There are huge differences between the immune systems of humans and other animals.
Follow this link for more information on why animal experiments cannot be used to predict results for humans.
The Summary from the NZAVS book, Animal Research Takes Lives - Humans and Animals Both Suffer (http://www.health.org.nz/summ.html)

Conclusion and New Zealand situation
The principal danger from xenotransplants is the unleashing of lethal pandemics onto the human population. However there are many other problems associated with xenotransplants, including failure rate, rejection, biological differences, animal welfare, environmental degradation, financial costs etc.

Emphasising xenotransplantation promotes an unsustainable spare-parts approach to health and wellness. Meanwhile the implementation of preventive health programmes (such as exercise, proper diet etc, which could reduce the demand for transplants of all kinds) will suffer.

Follow this link to find out The New Zealand Situation and What can you do? (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/xenobio.html)

Links to relevant pages on NZAVS site

NZAVS Submissions:

• Bioethics Council regarding Xenotransplantation, 2005 (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/submissions/bioxeno.html)
• Review of Regulation of Human Tissue and Tissue-Based Therapies, 2004 (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/submissions/humtis.html)
• Xenotransplantation Working Party (Australia), 2004 (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/submissions/xwp.html)
• Supplementary Order Paper No. 231, 2002 xenotransplantation moratorium (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/submissions/sop231.html)

NZAVS Media Release, 14 December 2005 (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/mediarel2.html)

NZAVS Media Release, 24 April 2003 (http://www.nzavs.org.nz/mediarel.html)

Links to external websites:

• Campaign for Responsible Transplantation (http://www.crt-online.org/)
• Of Pigs, Primates and Plagues – A layperson’s guide to the problems with animal-to-human organ transplants:
  Summary (http://www.mrmcmed.org/pigs.html) | Full Report (http://www.crt-online.org/mrmc.html)
• Diaries of Despair - revelations of xenotransplant experiments between pigs and primates (http://www.xenodiaries.org/)
• Oink if You Are For Organ Transplantation (http://www.bava.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Oink.html) by Javier Burgos (1992)