Animal welfare call for ban on 'cloning cruelty'

ANIMAL welfare campaigners stepped up their pressure for a ban on all cloning practices in the wake of the news that meat produced from an animal with clone parentage has entered the UK food chain.

Meat from the offspring of a cloned cow from Drumduan farm near Nairn, Scotland, entered the food chain last year and was eaten.

Charities and pressure groups say animal cloning is not only cruel to animals but raises unanswered questions regarding public health. Compassion in World Farming organisation believes the impact of cloning on farm animals to be "wholly negative".

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Joyce D'Silva said: "Surrogate mothers of cloned animals often suffer difficulties in giving birth and their offspring frequently suffer from the failure of key organs including kidney, lung and heart."

The Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals has been a longstanding opponent of cloning animals for food production. Last night a spokesman said: "Cloning has huge potential to cause unnecessary pain, suffering and distress which cannot be justified by purely commercial benefits.

"Cloning is inefficient, wastes animals' lives and causes animal suffering and distress at all stages of the process. Farm animals are already seen by some as commodities rather than sentient beings and cloning compounds this view resulting in less concern for animal welfare.

"The majority die during pregnancy, and a significant proportion of those that survive have a number of serious health and welfare problems associated with liver or kidney failure, respiratory disease, heart failure and musculo-skeletal problems. Many of these animals die prematurely of these conditions."

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Campaigns director with the Soil Association Molly Conisbee went further, saying human health was at risk too.

"There are many as yet unanswered questions on cloning animals – both ethical and practical – and insufficient regulation around their production and use. Not only does cloning have a negative impact on animal welfare, we also have no long-term evidence for the impacts on health – both as consumers of meat and dairy products and on the health outcomes for the animals themselves.

"If cloned animals are entering the food chain without consumers being made aware of it then, as things stand, this is a triple whammy failure of labelling, welfare and health."

But emeritus professor of microbiology at the University of Aberdeen Hugh Pennington downplayed the allegations, saying meat and milk from cloned cows poses no health risks. "It is perfectly safe. They are just the same as their parents from the genetic point of view so there's no problem there."

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Two reports, one from the US Food and Drug Administration and another from the European Food Safety Authority, concluded food from cloned animals presents no risks.

Director of policy at the National Farmers' Union Martin Haworth said consumers should have the overall decision on whether animals should be cloned for consumption. "Public confidence is an absolute priority for farmer members and as an industry we must be guided by consumer preference."

"These preferences need to be informed by balanced, scientifically-based research and assessment which is why we believe it is important to keep the door open on this type of technology.

"It may provide some consumer benefits in the future – but ultimately it is the consumer who will decide. The creation of cloned animals and embryos is not permitted in the EU but the progeny of animals cloned abroad may be imported. These animals are easily identifiable and traceable in the food chain."

The questions of science, ethics and the law around cloning

What is the law?

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Under European law, foodstuffs, including milk, produced from cloned animals must pass a safety evaluation and gain authorisation before they are marketed. But the FSA said it had neither made any authorisations nor been asked to do so.

According to Conservative Euro MP for Scotland, Struan Stevenson, EU rules around the import of meat and dairy products from clones and their offspring are "confused and inadequate".

Why has this caused such an uproar?

Campaigners argue cloning poses animal welfare and ethical issues.

The debate has been on people's radar since scientists hit the headlines in 1997 after achieving cloning of a mammal using an adult cell for the first time to create "Dolly" the sheep.

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It sparked an international row and brought the concept of cloning – duplicating biological material – into the public eye.

Dolly's death at the age of six after suffering ill-health prompted critics to raise concerns about the potential risks of cloning.

What does cloning involve?

Artificial clones can be created by nuclear transfer.

This involves removing the nucleus from a somatic (body) cell and placing it in an egg whose own nucleus has been removed.

The egg is then implanted in a surrogate mother and develops to term.

Why are animals cloned?

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Experts believe cloning could eventually offer the potential to produce large numbers of high-quality animals, if farmers could get authorisation to sell the meat and milk.

Animal cloning has the potential to overcome the limitations of the normal breeding cycle. It could be used to rapidly produce elite herds or modified animals.

Should people be worried?

FSA chief executive Tim Smith stressed there were no health risks associated with eating meat or drinking milk from the descendants of cloned cows.

Experts insist the animals are just the same as their parents from the genetic point of view and it is just the way they have been produced that is different.

But farm animal welfare campaigners Compassion in World Farming describe cloning as "cruel and unnecessary" and warn that it will lead to suffering.