Cloned animals in the food chain

Posted by Andrew Wadge on January 17th 2008 in Science, safety and health

There has been some interest in the media this week about the possibility of cloned animals being used in food production, which at present are not permitted as food in the UK. This followed the publication of two reports - one from the European Food Safety Authority and another from the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA concluded that meat and milk from cloned animals pose no additional risk compared with that obtained from existing animals, while EFSA has invited public comments on a similar conclusion. In the Agency we are looking closely at the EFSA report and we will provide comments to help ensure that EFSA reaches conclusions that are based on sound science.

An issue like cloning strikes a chord with the general public and I am very conscious that an objective, evidence-based assessment of the safety of food from cloned animals is only one piece of the jigsaw. There are potential animal welfare implications and the farming of cloned animals also raises significant ethical issues. There has been little or no published research in this country into public attitudes to food produced from cloned animals and the Agency has recently commissioned a study to fill this gap. This research will help us to understand the range of public concerns and we can then make sure that these are not overlooked when it comes to making decisions on the acceptability of animal cloning for food production.

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Cloned Animals

Posted by Anonymous Charles (not verified) on 26/01/2008 - 12:40

I have written to my MEP and shortly to my MP with regard to this. With repect this where words are not strong enough for the most insidous, immoral technology done by man. Where animals suffer terrible physical deformities’ plus serious health problems and despite an abysmal record of 96-99% of cloning attempts regularly causing deaths or severe health problem and then it is expected that the public consume the meat.
Why do we need this, not because we are short of meat, it could be argued seriously we consume too much meat, the consequence of this is the environment suffers. The USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its analysis on cloning, which means that an announcement could come shortly, that animals cloned can be sold for food without labelling in USA. This action is against the wishes of the people lets not forget this is an Agency's mission to look after the public in the USA it look as if they are going to be let down again. Will EFSA add further affront by suggesting no labelling to keep the public in the dark that this is a cloned animal, followed by the audacity to state there is no known health problem for the human population?
Last time we did this ‘cleverness’ cost use dearly in terms of animals and human suffering and finally death from the ‘mad cow disease’ when the so-called experts and some politicians said this is perfectly safe meat. This insidious, immoral technology should never have seen the light of day and it should have been the politicians’ duty to see this happened, not to ensure profits for these insidious, immoral corporations. We are hearing the same old arguments used by biotechnology used in the GMOs but unfortunately again by EFSA. That is ‘Genetic selection is a method to improve animal production [plant production]...’ then go on to say ‘…Generic selection relies on the natural genetic variation and gene redistribution, which occurs during sexual reproduction in conventional breeding [plant breeding]…’ (EFSA (2007) with 96-99% of animals resulting in serious health and deformities or death is to say at least argumentative. It begs the question if this happened in normal farming practices we would be in serious trouble. Then to turn around and say ethical aspects of cloning are not the remit of EFSA who are these people who condone such insidious immoral technology on animals and have the audacity to wrap it up in ‘science terminology’ and hang it on amiable title to justify their action.
Kind regards
Charles