What are the risks of xenotransplantation to the wider community?
Xenotransplantation carries some risks for the wider community. The major concern for public health is that xenotransplantation might transmit an infectious agent (such as a virus) from animals to humans. Retroviruses are the chief concern, because there are many examples of such viruses moving from one species to become infectious in another. However, retroviruses do not always cause obvious signs of disease initially. If a retrovirus present 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.
