• Question: Do animals have different blood groups, or is the blood different in every animal?

    Asked by hugo to Maria, Laurel, Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by wivirfc.
    • Photo: Laurel Fogarty

      Laurel Fogarty answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hi Hugo! We have blood groups because our cells have different surface antigens, which react in different ways. Lots of animals have different proteins and cell surface antigens too. That means that within species, different individuals will have different blood types. Between species things are even more different so if you needed a blood transfusion, you couldn’t take blood from even chimps- our closest relatives!

    • Photo: Bridget Waller

      Bridget Waller answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      We had this one before – i think the answer is that animals do have varieties of blood groups, but that these varieties are not necessarily the same as ours. Blood is fairly similar between species, but it isn’t similar enough to be able to mix it! 🙂

    • Photo: Ceri-Wyn Thomas

      Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      This is such a cool question! It’s one of my favorites. Ok, so animals do have different blood groups to humans. Other primates like chimps, bonobos and gorillas (our closest relatives) have the same blood antigens as us! Dogs on the other hand have 13 different known blood groups, none of which are the same as our primate blood groups. Horses have 8 blood groups and cows have 9. I’m not sure about other organisms that aren’t usually tested for veterinary science but I guess they have different blood groups too!
      Cool!

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