First head transplant surgery performed on Monkey.

A surgeon claims to have carried out the first head transplant on a monkey ahead of plans to attempt the controversial procedure on a human by the end of next year.

Italian Professor Sergio Canavero, Director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group and researchers at Harbin Medical University in China posted pictures of the creature whose head appears to have been grafted onto the body of another animal.

Stitches can clearly be seen surrounding the neck, which looked to be entirely severed.

According to Prof Canavero, the team led by Xiaoping Ren, connected the blood supply to prove that the animal could survive without suffering brain injury. They have not yet attempted to join the spinal cords so if the animal survived it would be completely paralysed.

“The monkey fully survived the procedure without any neurological injury of whatever kind,” says Prof Canavero, but said it was only kept alive for only 20 hours after the procedure for ethical reasons.

“The first studies on human cadavers have already begun in China and will be expanded shortly.

"The plan for the first human head transplant is on schedule, towards its expected date of realization, Christmas 2017. “

Canavero shocked the world last year when he said that he would be ready to transplant a human head within two years. He wants the first patient to be31-year-old Russian, Valery Spriridonov, who has a genetic muscle-wasting disease.