[Risk of infection causes by viruses in xenotransplantation]

The risk of transferring exogenous pig viruses to man during organ xenotransplantation can be controlled by keeping the pig donors pathogen-free. A risk of mobilizing pig endogenous retroviruses and a "xenozoonosis"-infection in human organ recipients cannot be excluded according to recently reported virological cell culture experiments. The present state of research, however, does not allow an answer to the question of whether or not a disease might be caused by such an infection and whether such a virus might be contagious to third persons.