Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren vogal bomb here. We tend to think
Speaker 1: about our blood type when we give blood or get
Speaker 1: a blood transfusion, or when we explore blood type personality
Speaker 1: theories for fun or fat diets. So, depending on your
Speaker 1: personal habits, your consideration of blood types or blood groups
Speaker 1: as scientists do refer to them, might range from rarely
Speaker 1: ever to pretty much all the time. But how much
Speaker 1: do other animals think about their blood types? Well, presumably never,
Speaker 1: given what we know about animal cognition, But we humans
Speaker 1: do think about other animals because sometimes our animals receive
Speaker 1: blood transfusions too, and we want to make sure the
Speaker 1: blood that we're giving a ferret or a dog or
Speaker 1: parakeet doesn't cause blood incompatibility reaction. That's a negative reaction
Speaker 1: causing the recipient's immune system to attack foreign blood producing
Speaker 1: antibodies against the red blood cell proteins or antigens in
Speaker 1: the donated blood. Although all animals have blood groups, every
Speaker 1: species has a different system, and we know the most
Speaker 1: about the systems of domesticated mammals. The human blood group
Speaker 1: system is based on three different antigens A, B, and O.
Speaker 1: The possible blood types we could have are A, B,
Speaker 1: A B, and O, and each one of these can
Speaker 1: be either r H positive or negative. Type O negative
Speaker 1: blood is generally considered to be universally accepted by any
Speaker 1: other blood type, and type A B positive can receive
Speaker 1: any other type. Dogs, for their part, have more than
Speaker 1: eight different antigens that can attach to their red blood cells,
Speaker 1: most of them labeled dog a wreth site antigen. Those
Speaker 1: eight types are d E A one point one, one
Speaker 1: point to three, four, five, six, and seven. Often individuals
Speaker 1: within a specific breed of dog will have the same
Speaker 1: blood type. For instance, sixt of greyhounds fall into the
Speaker 1: D E A one point one negative blood group the
Speaker 1: universal dog donor, but new canine blood groups are still
Speaker 1: being detected. The recently discovered dal blood group, for example,
Speaker 1: is only found in Dalmatians. Caps, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: have only two possible antigens A and B, though they
Speaker 1: aren't the same antigens A and B found on human blood.
Speaker 1: There is no universal donor or recipient feline blood groups,
Speaker 1: but the vast majority around of domestic cats have type
Speaker 1: A blood, while purebreads are often type B. A B
Speaker 1: is also possible but very rare. Like dogs, horse blood
Speaker 1: groups are loosely organized along breed lines, but there are
Speaker 1: thirty different groups and they represent combinations of eight different antigens. A, C, D, K, P, Q,
Speaker 1: and U are internationally recognized, while T is still being researched. Cows, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: are tricky because there are eleven major blood groups A, B, C, F, J, L, M, R, S, T,
Speaker 1: and Z, but the B group alone includes over sixty
Speaker 1: different antigens, making blood matches for transfusions tough. No one
Speaker 1: is entirely sure why different blood types exist, though in
Speaker 1: humans and other animals, it's thought to have to do
Speaker 1: with evolutionary selection regarding disease immunity, since we do know
Speaker 1: that we inherit our blood antigens from our parents. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other curious topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
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