Are there any risks of xenotransplantation to the wider community?
Animal-to-human transplantation carries some risk for the wider community, although it is believed the risk is very small. The concern for public health is that xenotransplantation might transmit an infectious agent (such as a virus) from animals to humans causing disease. The new disease could also spread to those in close contact with the transplant recipient and the wider community. The knowledge driving this concern is many past examples of retroviruses moving from one species to another. Retroviruses do not always cause obvious signs of disease immediately. Therefore, if a retrovirus in a xenotransplant were to infect the recipient of the transplant, it may spread to close contacts, carers and even the general population before it became obvious that an infection had occurred.
