Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, doesn't just raise pigs to be eaten. 

 

作为全球最大的猪肉生产商，史密斯菲尔德食品公司养猪可不仅仅是为了做成食品。

 

The company announced lately that it plans to explore the possibility of using its hogs¹ 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 genes² to make the organs viable³. 

 

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.

 

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 oversee⁴ its medical ventures. 

 

Smithfield slaughters⁵ 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.

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