人类的血液是有血型区分的，当我们需要献血或输血的时候，确定血型至关重要。那么，动物们是否也存在不同的血型呢？答案是肯定的。

 

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 transfusions² too, and we want to make sure the blood we're giving a ferret or dog or parakeet doesn't cause a blood incompatibility³ reaction.

动物们会在意自己的血型吗？根据我们目前对动物认知能力的了解，它们应该不会在意。不过人类会在意，因为有时动物也会生病，也会需要输血。我们希望给猫咪、狗狗或鹦鹉输血时不会产生血液不相容的反应。

 

That's a negative reaction causing the recipient⁴'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 domesticated⁵ mammals.

血液不相容反应是一种不良反应，会导致受体的免疫系统攻击外来血液，在捐献的血液中产生针对红细胞蛋白或抗原的抗体。虽然所有的动物都有血型，但每个物种血型系统不同，截止现在，我们对家养哺乳动物血型系统了解的最多。

 

The human blood group system is based on three 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.

人类血型系统基于三种不同的抗原：A、B和O。我们可能拥有的血型是A型、B型、AB型和O型，其中每一种都可能是Rh阳性或阴性。Rh阴性O型血液通常被认为可以给其他任何血型输血，Rh阳性AB型血液可以接受任何其他血型血液。

 

Dogs, for their part, have more than eight 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). 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 donor⁶) blood group. But new canine⁷ blood groups are still being detected — the recently discovered Dal blood group, for example, is only found in Dalmatians.

狗具有八种以上可以附着在红细胞上的抗原，其中大多数标记为狗红细胞抗原（DEA 1.1、1.2、3、4、5、6和7）。通常，某一特定品种狗的血型相同。例如，60%的灰猎犬属于DEA 1.1阴性（通用捐献者）血型。但新的犬类血型还在检测中——例如，最近发现的Dal血型仅在斑点狗中发现。

 

Cats, on the other hand, have only two 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 feline⁸ 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.

而猫只有两种可能的抗原——A和B，不过与人类血液中的A和B抗原不同。目前，还没有通用的供体或受体猫血型，但绝大多数（大约90%）的家猫都是A型血，而更具异国情调的纯种猫通常是B型。也有AB型血的猫，但非常罕见。

 

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 tricky⁹ 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.

与狗一样，马的血型也按照品种粗略地划分为30种不同的血型，意味着8种不同抗原的组合（A、C、D、K、P、Q和U是国际公认的，而T仍在研究中）。牛的血型系统更复杂，因为牛有11个主要血型（A、B、C、F、J、L、M、R、S、T和Z），但是B型包括60多种不同的抗原，使得输血的血液匹配变得困难。

 

Keep all this in mind next time you need to give some furry¹⁰ companion a blood transfusion¹ – we animals have much in common, but there's still much that separates us.

下次你需要给“毛孩子”输血时，请记住——我们与动物有很多共同点，但仍有很多区别。

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