How much do animals think about their blood types？ Presumably never， given what we know about animal cognition. But we humans do think about our animals， because sometimes animals receive blood transfusions too， and we want to make sure the blood we’re giving a cat or dog or parakeet doesn’t cause a blood incompatibility reaction.

That’s a negative reaction causing the recipient’s immune system to attack foreign blood， producing antibodies against the red blood cell proteins， or antigens， in the donated blood. Although all animals have blood groups， every species has a different system， and we know the most about the systems of domesticated mammals.

The human blood group system is based on 3 different antigens： A， B， and O. The possible blood types we could have are A， B， AB and O， and each one of these can be either Rh positive or negative. Type O negative blood is generally considered to be universally accepted by any other blood type， and type AB positive can receive any other type.

Dogs， for their part， have more than 8 different antigens that can attach to their red blood cells， most of them labeled Dog Erythrocyte Antigen （DEA 1.1， 1.2， 3， 4， 5， 6 and 7）.

動物們會在意自己的血型嗎？根據(jù)我們目前對動物認(rèn)知能力的了解，它們應(yīng)該不會在意。不過人類會在意，因?yàn)橛袝r動物也會需要輸血。我們希望給貓咪、狗狗或鸚鵡輸血時，它們不會產(chǎn)生血液不相容的反應(yīng)。

血液不相容反應(yīng)是一種不良反應(yīng)，會導(dǎo)致受體的免疫系統(tǒng)對外來血液產(chǎn)生排斥反應(yīng)，在捐獻(xiàn)的血液中產(chǎn)生針對紅細(xì)胞蛋白或抗原的抗體。雖然所有的動物都有血型，但每個物種血型系統(tǒng)不同。目前，我們對家養(yǎng)哺乳動物血型系統(tǒng)了解得最多。

人類血型系統(tǒng)基于3種不同的抗原：A、B和O。我們可能擁有的血型是A型、B型、AB型和O型，其中每一種都可能是Rh陽性或陰性。Rh陰性O(shè)型血液通常被認(rèn)為可以給其他血型輸血，Rh陽性AB型血液可以接受其他血型的血液。

狗具有8種以上可以附著在紅細(xì)胞上的抗原，其中大多數(shù)標(biāo)記為狗紅細(xì)胞抗原（DEA 1.1、1.2、3、4、5、6和7）。

Often individuals within a specific breed of dog will have the same blood type—for instance， 60 percent of greyhounds fall into the DEA 1.1 negative （the universal dog donor） blood group. But new canine blood groups are still being detected—the recently discovered Dal blood group， for example， is only found in Dalmatians.

Like dogs， horse blood groups are loosely organized along breed lines， but there are 30 different groups， that represent combinations of 8 different antigens （A， C， D， K， P， Q and U are internationally recognized， while T is still being researched）.

Cows are tricky because there are 11 major blood groups （A， B， C， F， J， L， M， R， S， T and Z）， but the B group includes over 60 different antigens， making blood matches for transfusions tough.

Cats， on the other hand， have only 2 possible antigens—A and B， although they aren’t the same A and B antigens found on human blood. There is no universal donor or recipient feline blood groups， but the vast majority （around 90 percent） of domestic cats have type A blood， while more exotic purebreds often type B. AB is also possible， but very rare.

Keep all this in mind when you need to give some furry companion a blood transfusion—humans and animals have much in common， but there’s still much that separates us.

通常來說，某一特定品種狗的血型相同，例如，60%的灰獵犬屬于DEA 1.1陰性（通用捐獻(xiàn)者）血型。但新的犬類血型還在檢測中，例如，最近發(fā)現(xiàn)的Dal血型僅在斑點(diǎn)狗中發(fā)現(xiàn)。

與狗一樣，馬的血型也按照品種粗略地被劃分為30種不同的血型，分別是8種不同抗原的組合（A、C、D、K、P，Q和U是國際公認(rèn)的，而T仍在研究中）。

牛的血型系統(tǒng)更復(fù)雜，因?yàn)榕Ｓ?1種主要血型（A、B、C、F、J、L、M、R、S、T和Z），但是B型血包括60多種不同的抗原，這使得輸血時的血液匹配變得困難。

而貓只有兩種可能的抗原——A和B，不過與人類血液中的A和B抗原不同。目前，還沒有通用的供體或受體貓血型，但絕大多數(shù)（大約90%）的家貓都是A型血，而更具異國情調(diào)的純種貓通常是B型血。也有AB型血的貓，但非常罕見。

當(dāng)你需要給“毛孩子”輸血時，請記?。喝祟惻c動物有很多共同點(diǎn)，但仍有很多區(qū)別。

Word Study

transfusion /tr?ns'fju??n/ n. 輸血

antigen /'?nt?d??n/ n. 抗原

domesticated /d?'mest?ke?t?d/ adj. 馴養(yǎng)的