My dad worked on the beginnings of this research back in the day. He said the challenge was as soon as you engineered a gene out of the pig to get rid of a protein that would trigger an immune reaction in humans, they’d find another one. So it was whack-a-mole for a while. It’s cool to see this come to fruition as a technology. And just in time for self driving vehicles which will decimate the organ supply.
This seems like it could eventually lead to a lot of pigs suffering if there aren't stringent laws requiring their humane treatment (and considering how things are in the animal agriculture industry, it's a fair bet to say there won't be).
I think they would be treated better than agricultural pigs because you want the organs in the best health for transplant. If they mistreat the animals then the organs wouldn’t last as long. Although maybe they wouldn’t care since they can charge you for a second replacement later, if it’s done in the fucked up US healthcare system.
My bet is on the animal organ technology getting to market first. Although the experiments with printing human heart cells on top of the stripped cartilage from a pig’s heart looks promising. Best of both tech.
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