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Xenograft
A tissue from an animal that is transplanted (transferred) to another species of animal. An example is when skin is taken from a pig and used to temporarily cover up damaged skin of another animal species because of a severe burn injury. This is usually done when there is not good enough tissue from elsewhere in the burn victim's body to be used to cover up the burn wound or when tissue from a tissue bank is not available. The transplanted tissue will quickly be rejected by the burn victim, but it will provide a cover for a few days, which will decrease fluid loss from the open wound.

The difference between a xenograft and a zoograft is that a zoograft is a tissue that is always transferred from an animal to a human. So whereas a zoograft always means a transplant from an animal to a human, a xenograft does not always mean this, although it can mean this. For example, a xenograft can be a tissue transplant from a pig to a gorilla, but it can also be a tissue transplant from a pig to a human. Zoografts will always be transplants from animals to humans. A xenograft is also known as a heterograft, heterotransplant, heterologous graft, heteroplastic graft, and xenogeneic graft. Xenograft comes from the Greek word "xenos" meaning "strange," and the Greek word "grapheion" meaning "a writing instrument." Put the words together and you have "strange writing instrument." The reason for this is because in a pencil-shaped instrument is used during grafting.