- Milk and meat from cloned animals probably is safe for
human consumption, but there are still a lot of unknowns, according to
a new report.
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- A National Academy of Sciences report (PDF) released
Wednesday said there's no evidence that milk or meat from cloned animals
will make anyone sick. But it also said researchers need better testing
methods and more data.
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- Several companies, including ViaGen and Cyagra, offer
livestock cloning services so ranchers can reproduce their most elite sires
and dams, eliminating the genetic gamble that comes with more traditional
methods of reproduction. The animals ranchers choose for cloning will be
those that produce better meat or milk, resist disease and reproduce more
efficiently.
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- ViaGen, a subsidiary of Exeter Life Sciences in Austin,
Texas, has put a decidedly positive spin on the National Academy of Sciences,
or NAS, report. "The National Academy of Sciences once again endorsed
the safety of cloned animals in the food ... on possible unintended effects
of genetically engineered foods," said Sara Davis, president of ViaGen.
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- The NAS report reiterated many of the conclusions drawn
at a Nov. 4 Food and Drug Administration meeting. At the meeting, the FDA
said it would soon determine how to regulate cloned food products, but
a protocol has yet to be announced.
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- On Thursday, the FDA said it is still developing a regulatory
policy, but in the meantime it has asked companies not to market food from
cloned animals.
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- NAS representatives were not immediately available for
comment.
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- While the NAS report does say there's no evidence that
food from cloned animals is dangerous, it also says the industry needs
better methods for determining how cloned animals might affect human health.
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- "Profiling methods and their interpretation are
not sufficiently developed to allow direct assessment of potential health
effects associated with most unintended compositional changes," says
the report, which is a sub-report of a larger document on genetically engineered
crops.
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- The technologies available are also not sufficient for
determining what parameters, such as DNA or the presence of certain amino
acids, are relevant for predicting the impact on human health, the report
said.
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- Researchers don't know when cloned animals are healthy,
let alone safe to eat, said Michael Hansen, a senior research associate
at the Consumers Union. At the Nov. 4 FDA meeting, animal-cloning researchers
said that of 108 cloned cows studied, eight had died. But the data they
had collected on the animals' health didn't show any differences between
the cattle that died and those that lived. Hansen suggested that means
the information that breeders are collecting is inadequate for determining
the health of the animals.
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- But ViaGen and other animal-cloning companies have been
feeding the FDA health data on every parameter possible, said Scott Davis,
president of intellectual property licensing and investments at Exeter
Life Sciences, who handles regulatory affairs for ViaGen.
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- "We measured absolutely everything," he said.
"It was not terribly cost-effective, I can assure you, but it was
exhaustive."
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- Davis said he would welcome guidelines from the FDA outlining
exactly what end points should determine whether cloned animals are exactly
the same as other animals. He also said he plans to publish his data when
the FDA is finished analyzing it, and he would be happy to enter it into
a publicly accessible database -- something the NAS report suggested to
encourage transparency in the system.
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- Studies do show differences between cloned and regular
animals, including a higher incidence of genetic and physiological abnormalities
in clones. But scientists say the differences arise mainly during the development
of the embryo and are negligible by the time the cow is ready for slaughter
or milking.
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- But Hansen said some cloned animals have died unexpectedly
as adults, proving there are many unknowns when it comes to cloned animals.
Watchdog groups fear that the FDA's animal-cloning regulations will mimic
the agency's genetically modified crops protocol, which is voluntary. Biotech
companies such as Monsanto typically summarize information about their
genetically modified corn or wheat for the FDA, but are not required to
do so by law. The FDA does not provide its own independent review.
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- The NAS didn't provide numbers, but said cloning is very
inefficient and leads to many abnormal and stillborn animals. ViaGen's
Davis said the success rates are improving, but declined to give numbers.
Cloning experts say the success rate is between 1 percent and 3 percent,
depending on the type of animal.
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- Hansen suspects people will be less likely to accept
such a relaxed protocol for genetically modified animals, for health-related
and ethical reasons.
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- "People have less of an emotional connection to
plants than animals," he said.
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