全球最大豬肉生產商計劃供應豬器官給人類做器官移植
作爲全球最大的豬肉生產商，史密斯菲爾德食品公司的野心可不只限於將豬肉做成食品，他們還打算供應豬器官用於人體移植，並已展開相關研究。如果能夠通過基因編輯去除豬的病毒基因並攻克人體免疫系統排斥問題，“人面獸心”有一天將會成爲現實。
Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, doesn't just raise pigs to be eaten.
作爲全球最大的豬肉生產商，史密斯菲爾德食品公司養豬可不僅僅是爲了做成食品。
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.
該公司日前宣佈計劃探索在醫療領域利用豬的可能性，如利用豬生長可以移植到人類體中的組織和器官。
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.
雖然目前尚未出現成功將豬器官移植到人身上的案例，但最近的科學突破和基因編輯工具等先進技術的出現，正在提高這一設想成功的可能性。
To use pig parts - like hearts or lungs - for human transplants, scientists have to edit certain genes to make the organs viable.
爲了使豬的器官（如心臟或肺）能夠用於人體移植，科學家必須編輯某些基因。
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.
史密斯菲爾德生物科技公司副總裁考特尼•斯坦頓告訴《商業內幕》網站，說其公司希望使用那些通常只能白白浪費的豬器官（如心臟）來開發移植人體的器官。
"First and foremost, we are a food company," she says.
“首先，我們是一家食品公司。”她說。
"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."
“公司的責任包括確保我們利用動物的所有部分，儘可能減少浪費。動物的許多部分通常不會製成食品，但是我們已經發現這些部分也可以物盡其用，例如供應給醫療界。”
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，史密斯菲爾德公司加入了一個公共私營組織工程學聯合會，該聯合會得到美國國防部8000萬美元的資助。公司還成立了一個單獨的子公司——史密斯菲爾德生物科學公司，來監督其醫療事業的發展。
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，並希望能夠直接將豬的器官出售給研究人員和醫療保健公司，以研究用於人類移植的豬器官。
Stanton says the company plans to look into ways all types of major organs and skin could be used for transplants.
斯坦頓說，公司計劃探索讓所有類型的主要器官和皮膚都可用於移植的方法。
"There are striking similarities between pigs and humans: for example, our DNA and digestive tract," she says.
她還表示：“豬和人之間有着明顯的相似之處：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.
美國衛生資源和服務管理局表示，等候器官移植的美國人數量超過11.8萬，而每天大約有22人因未等到新器官而去世。
In 2016, doctors performed a record-high 33,500 transplants.
2016年，醫生們總共執行了33500次移植手術，打破了歷史記錄。
The largest hurdle for pig-human organ transplants is the fact that pigs have genes encoded with viruses that could transmit diseases to humans.
將豬器官移植到人體內的最大障礙在於豬含有病毒編碼基因，有可能將疾病傳染給人類。
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.
第二個挑戰是免疫反應，如果醫生要將豬器官移植到人體內，人類的免疫系統可能會排斥並攻擊器官。
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.
史密斯菲爾德公司是中國肉類加工巨頭雙彙集團的一個價值140億美元的子公司，已經開始收集和銷售豬的器官（如胰腺和甲狀腺），以用於各種醫療用途。
The US market for pork materials - for medical, pet food, and non-food purposes - totals over US$100 billion.
美國的豬肉市場，包括醫療、寵物食品和非食品用途，總額達1000多億美元。
Most of the pork materials Smithfield sells are used to make ingredients in drugs that treat conditions like indigestion and hypothyroidism.
史密斯菲爾德公司銷售的大多數豬肉材料都用於製造治療消化不良和甲狀腺功能減退等疾病的藥物。
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，公司向醫療保健公司提供粘膜（豬腸道膜），用於生成肝素。肝素是一種血液稀釋劑，可防止手術中發生凝血。然而，這些部分尚未被用於生成人類細胞。
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.
雖然史密斯菲爾德公司是研究用於人類移植的豬器官的最大的企業之一，但還有其他公司躍躍欲試。3月，生物科技創業公司Egenesis已經融資3800萬美元，該公司採用基因編輯工具處理豬的器官，使其能夠用於移植。
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.
再生醫學公司Revivicor也在做類似的研究，該公司在弗吉尼亞的一個農場培育與人類具有遺傳相似性的豬。團隊已經成功地向豬的肝臟、腎臟和心臟加入了五個人類基因。
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利用這些新技術時，她的團隊預計會存在一個學習曲線。
"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.
“雖然這項新研究還處於初級階段，但是我們希望能夠出一份力，以促進未來各種器官移植和損傷恢復解決方案的產生。”她說。
