Meat, milk from cloned animals safe

WASHINGTON: The US government on Thursday announced that meat and milk from cloned animals is safe for human consumption and needs no special labeling, prompting an outcry by advocacy groups.   

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the announcement following studies that found that meat and milk from cloned livestock and their progeny is as safe to eat as that from conventionally bred animals.   

"Based on FDA's analysis of hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and other studies on the health and food composition of clones and their offspring, the draft risk assessment has determined that meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day," said Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

"Cloning poses no unique risks to animal health when compared to other assisted reproductive technologies currently in use in US agriculture."   

The FDA's findings would allow the marketing of clones and their offspring for food and milk once a 90-day public comment period expires. The FDA noted that consumers will not be eating much food from clones, as they are meant to be used for breeding.   

Critics denounced Thursday's announcement and pointed to independent polls that show over 60 percent of Americans oppose animal cloning and would not purchase cloned meat and milk even if the government says they are safe.   

"We think this would be a very bad decision," Carol Foreman, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, said.

"We are urging people to write to the FDA, to members of Congress, to urge them to tell the FDA to back off."   

She said failing any action on the part of the government, advocacy groups would urge consumers to pressure retailers not to sell products from cloned animals.   

Foreman said the government was ignoring scientific data showing that clone pregnancies often end in miscarriage and many of the animals are deformed or do not survive to maturity.   

"There is, in short, no public value from a technology that raises serious concerns regarding cruelty to animals and the nasty underlying threat that this is the first step down the slippery slope to human cloning," she said.   

An animal clone is an exact genetic copy of a donor animal.   

Dolly, an ewe, was the first mammal successfully cloned in 1996 from a somatic cell. Scientists have since applied the technique to cattle, horses, pigs and other mammals.