Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, 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. 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. 

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

 

作為全球最大的豬肉生產(chǎn)商，史密斯菲爾德食品公司日前宣布計(jì)劃探索在醫(yī)療領(lǐng)域利用豬的可能性，如利用豬生長(zhǎng)可以移植到人類體中的組織和器官。雖然目前尚未出現(xiàn)成功將豬器官移植到人身上的案例，但最近的科學(xué)突破和基因編輯工具等先進(jìn)技術(shù)的出現(xiàn)，正在提高這一設(shè)想成功的可能性。

為了使豬的器官（如心臟或肺）能夠用于人體移植，科學(xué)家必須編輯某些基因。

 

Courtney Stanton, VP of Smithfield Bioscience, "First and foremost, we are a food company," she says. 

史密斯菲爾德生物科技公司副總裁考特尼•斯坦頓“首先，我們是一家食品公司。”

 

"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." 

“公司的責(zé)任包括確保我們利用動(dòng)物的所有部分，盡可能減少浪費(fèi)。動(dòng)物的許多部分通常不會(huì)制成食品，但是我們已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)這些部分也可以物盡其用，例如供應(yīng)給醫(yī)療界。”

 

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

斯坦頓說，公司計(jì)劃探索讓所有類型的主要器官和皮膚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. 

她還表示：“豬和人之間有著明顯的相似之處：如DNA和消化道。”

 

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，史密斯菲爾德公司加入了一個(gè)公共私營(yíng)組織工程學(xué)聯(lián)合會(huì)，該聯(lián)合會(huì)得到美國(guó)國(guó)防部8000萬美元的資助。公司還成立了一個(gè)單獨(dú)的子公司——史密斯菲爾德生物科學(xué)公司，來監(jiān)督其醫(yī)療事業(yè)的發(fā)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. 

史密斯菲爾德公司每年屠殺約1600萬頭豬，并希望能夠直接將豬的器官出售給研究人員和醫(yī)療保健公司，以研究用于人類移植的豬器官。

 

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

斯坦頓說，史密斯菲爾德公司嘗試?yán)眠@些新技術(shù)時(shí)，她的團(tuán)隊(duì)預(yù)計(jì)會(huì)存在一個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)曲線。

 

"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. 

“雖然這項(xiàng)新研究還處于初級(jí)階段，但是我們希望能夠出一份力，以促進(jìn)未來各種器官移植和損傷恢復(fù)解決方案的產(chǎn)生。”她說。