Agency Cites Safety Concerns Over Cloned Animals Products
Adding to the controversial debate over cloned animal products, the European Union’s top food safety agency said on Thursday that cloned animal products may not be safe and required further study.
"It is clear there are significant animal health and welfare issues for surrogate mothers and clones that can be more frequent and severe than for conventionally bred animals," said Vittorio Silano, chair of EFSA’s Scientific Committee.
"For cattle and pigs, food safety concerns are considered unlikely. But we must acknowledge that the evidence base is still small. We would like to have a broader data base and we need further clarification."
Many consumer and religious groups oppose the idea of cloning. But the EFSA’s initial response in January was that that cloned animals could be safe to eat.
The EFSA also said it saw "no environmental impact" from animal cloning, which takes cells from an adult and fuses them with others before implanting them in a surrogate mother.
However, when asked if cloned products such as meat and dairy would be safe for people to buy in European supermarkets, Dr. Dan Collins of EFSA said: "There are possible concerns … there is an impact of animal health and welfare on food safety. We need more data."
Newer technologies over potential food uses have split EU countries down the middle, with one group calling for tolerance, acceptance and more research while the other urges caution and rejection until the science is more advanced.
EU citizens have been far more reluctant to embrace biotechnology, such as genetic modification developed to increase yields or boost crop resistance against certain pests. The idea has received less criticism in the United States.
The European Commission gets the final say, as most debates on the topic have ended in deadlock.
The Commission released a statement saying: "The very preliminary reaction to this report is that it gives rise to increased concerns on aspects of animal health and welfare. Due to the absence of data there are also some food safety open questions."
Whether the EFSA backs it or not, the EU executive says consumers will need to be convinced and they intend to carry out a EU-wide consumer survey on the issue in September.
One Commission official familiar with the matter said the results of the survey could be the deciding factor. “If EU citizens say they oppose cloning, then it could kill the whole issue,” he stated.
"But of course if the results prove to be mixed and unclear, then we could have a battle of hearts and minds on the issue based on science and morality."
A recent survey by the International Food Information Council claims more than half of shoppers were unlikely to buy food made from cloned animals.
Dean Foods, the largest U.S. dairy producer and distributor, said last month that it would not sell milk from cloned animals due to consumer concerns.
The European Commission asked the Bologna-based food agency to investigate the merits of cloning in March of 2007, prompted after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its backing to meat and milk products from cloned cattle, pigs and goats.
Hundreds of animals have been cloned mainly in the United States, and EU officials had said Britain and Germany supported the cloning of animals with London already confirming that it has imported a cloned offspring.
However, Germany’s agriculture minister said on Thursday that he did not support imports of cloned meat and dairy products.
"Politically I was always against it. If EFSA affirms that now scientifically, I welcome this," Horst Seehofer said.
Advocates of livestock cloning insist that it is perfectly safe, and believe the technology will help produce more milk and lean, tender meat by creating more disease-resistant animals.
Opponents still insist that scientists don’t know its effects on nutrition and biology.
"The EU with only one option: to ban animal cloning for food," Sonja Van Tichelen, director of Eurogroup for Animals, a Brussels-based animal welfare lobby.
“Consumers in neither America nor Europe want to have food products from clones or their offspring, so why introduce it in the first place?”
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