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