全球最大猪肉生产商计划供应猪器官给人类做器官移植

作为全球最大的猪肉生产商，史密斯菲尔德食品公司的野心可不只限于将猪肉做成食品，他们还打算供应猪器官用于人体移植，并已展开相关研究。如果能够通过基因编辑去除猪的病毒基因并攻克人体免疫系统排斥问题，“人面兽心”有一天将会成为现实。

Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, doesn't just raise pigs to be eaten.

作为全球最大的猪肉生产商，史密斯菲尔德食品公司养猪可不仅仅是为了做成食品。

The company announced lately that it plans to explore the possibility of using its hogs for medical purposes, including growing tissue and organs that can be transplanted into humans.

该公司日前宣布计划探索在医疗领域利用猪的可能性，如利用猪生长可以移植到人类体中的组织和器官。

There hasn't yet been a successful transplant of a pig organ into a human, but recent scientific breakthroughs and advanced technology such as gene-editing tools are making the possibility more likely.

虽然目前尚未出现成功将猪器官移植到人身上的案例，但最近的科学突破和基因编辑工具等先进技术的出现，正在提高这一设想成功的可能性。

To use pig parts - like hearts or lungs - for human transplants, scientists have to edit certain genes to make the organs viable.

为了使猪的器官 Courtney Stanton, VP of Smithfield Bioscience, tells Business Insider that the company hopes to use certain pig parts that usually go to waste, like hearts, to develop organs for humans.

史密斯菲尔德生物科技公司副总裁考特尼•斯坦顿告诉《商业内幕》网站，说其公司希望使用那些通常只能白白浪费的猪器官 "First and foremost, we are a food company," she says.

“首先，我们是一家食品公司。”她说。

"Part of that responsibility is making sure we utilise the entire animal, and minimise waste. There are many parts of the animal which are not typically eaten. However, we have found valuable uses for these parts such as supplying them to the medical community."

“公司的责任包括确保我们利用动物的所有部分，尽可能减少浪费。动物的许多部分通常不会制成食品，但是我们已经发现这些部分也可以物尽其用，例如供应给医疗界。”

In April, Smithfield joined a public-private tissue-engineering consortium, which is funded by an US$80 million grant from the US Department of Defence. Smithfield has also launched a separate unit, Smithfield Bioscience, to oversee its medical ventures.

4月，史密斯菲尔德公司加入了一个公共私营组织工程学联合会，该联合会得到美国国防部8000万美元的资助。公司还成立了一个单独的子公司——史密斯菲尔德生物科学公司，来监督其医疗事业的发展。

Smithfield slaughters approximately 16 million pigs every year, and hopes to start selling pig parts directly to researchers and healthcare companies that conduct research on pig-human transplants.

史密斯菲尔德公司每年屠杀约1600万头猪，并希望能够直接将猪的器官出售给研究人员和医疗保健公司，以研究用于人类移植的猪器官。

Stanton says the company plans to look into ways all types of major organs and skin could be used for transplants.

斯坦顿说，公司计划探索让所有类型的主要器官和皮肤都可用于移植的方法。

"There are striking similarities between pigs and humans: for example, our DNA and digestive tract," she says.

她还表示：“猪和人之间有着明显的相似之处：如DNA和消化道。”

More than 118,000 Americans are on the waiting list for organ transplants, and approximately 22 people die each day waiting on new organs, according to the US Health Resources and Services Administration.

美国卫生资源和服务管理局表示，等候器官移植的美国人数量超过11.8万，而每天大约有22人因未等到新器官而去世。

In 2016, doctors performed a record-high 33,500 transplants.

2016年，医生们总共执行了33500次移植手术，打破了历史记录。

The largest hurdle for pig-human organ transplants is the fact that pigs have genes encoded with viruses that could transmit diseases to humans.

将猪器官移植到人体内的最大障碍在于猪含有病毒编码基因，有可能将疾病传染给人类。

A second challenge is immunology - if doctors were to introduce a pig organ to the human body, the immune system might reject the organ and attack it.

第二个挑战是免疫反应，如果医生要将猪器官移植到人体内，人类的免疫系统可能会排斥并攻击器官。

Smithfield, a US$14 billion subsidiary of the Chinese meat processing giant WH Group, already gathers and sells pig parts, like pancreases and thyroid glands, for a variety of medical purposes.

史密斯菲尔德公司是中国肉类加工巨头双汇集团的一个价值140亿美元的子公司，已经开始收集和销售猪的器官 The US market for pork materials - for medical, pet food, and non-food purposes - totals over US$100 billion.

美国的猪肉市场，包括医疗、宠物食品和非食品用途，总额达1000多亿美元。

Most of the pork materials Smithfield sells are used to make ingredients in drugs that treat conditions like indigestion and hypothyroidism.

史密斯菲尔德公司销售的大多数猪肉材料都用于制造治疗消化不良和甲状腺功能减退等疾病的药物。

For example, the company supplies mucosa (a hog's intestinal membrane) to healthcare companies to create Heparin, a blood thinner that prevents clotting in surgeries. The parts have not yet been used to develop human cells, however.

例如，公司向医疗保健公司提供粘膜 While Smithfield is one of the largest companies venturing into pig-human transplants, it's not alone. Biotech startup Egenesis, which raised US$38 million in March, uses a gene-editing tool to make pig organs viable for transplants.

虽然史密斯菲尔德公司是研究用于人类移植的猪器官的最大的企业之一，但还有其他公司跃跃欲试。3月，生物科技创业公司Egenesis已经融资3800万美元，该公司采用基因编辑工具处理猪的器官，使其能够用于移植。

The regenerative medicine company Revivicor is also breeding pigs that have some genetic similarities to humans on a Virginia farm. The team has added five human genes to the pigs' livers, kidneys, and hearts.

再生医学公司Revivicor也在做类似的研究，该公司在弗吉尼亚的一个农场培育与人类具有遗传相似性的猪。团队已经成功地向猪的肝脏、肾脏和心脏加入了五个人类基因。

Stanton says her team anticipates a learning curve as Smithfield attempts to harness these new technologies.

斯坦顿说，史密斯菲尔德公司尝试利用这些新技术时，她的团队预计会存在一个学习曲线。

"Although we are still in the infancy stage of this new research, we hope to provide elements that will help to facilitate a variety of organ transplants and injury recovery solutions in the future," she says.

“虽然这项新研究还处于初级阶段，但是我们希望能够出一份力，以促进未来各种器官移植和损伤恢复解决方案的产生。”她说。