• Question: Hey do animals have the same type of blood. Annalise and Victoria

    Asked by whvicandanna to Anil, Blanka, Emma, Mike on 4 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 4 Jul 2012:


      All mammals have the same red blood cells that we do.
      Birds (and I think reptiles) have nuclei in their red blood cells.

      (To explain: imagine a boiled egg – this is what most cells look like. The yolk is like the nucleus of the cell and the white is the surrounding bit of the cell which is called the cytoplasm. Our red blood cells look like a boiled egg with no yolk, only white. Birds’ red blood cells have both the white and the yolk.)

      Perhaps you were asking if animals all have the same type as in humans which can have type A, B, AB or O? Animals also have different blood groups (which is why if we give dogs or cats blood transfusions we need to match their blood to a suitable donor)

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