http://www.nlpwessex.org/news/cloning.htm

[From GM Watch 15.8.10]

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CLONING
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+ MEAT FROM CLONE OFFSPRING ENTERS EUROPE'S FOOD CHAIN?Britain’s Food Standards Agency said it found meat from three offspring of a cloned cow had entered the food chain in Europe. But it could not state for certain whether milk from a cloned offspring had been sold.

The statement was made after an investigation sparked by a report last month in the International Herald Tribune. In the article, a British dairy farmer who insisted on anonymity said that he was using milk from a cow bred from a US-bred clone as part of his daily production.

US authorities have declared food from cloned cattle and other animals safe to eat.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/business/global/14clone.html?src=busln
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10942050

+ UK: FSA NEEDS TO GET A GRIP ON CLONED MILK
GM Freeze is calling for urgent action by the Food Standards Agency to ensure that no milk from cloned dairy cows enters the food chain and for procedures to be put in place to prevent the import of cloned embryos from the US.

Cloning farm animals is not legal in the European Union. Many safety and ethical issues have been raised, including:

• The health and welfare of the cloned embryo and animals
• The welfare of the surrogate mother
• High failure rates from cloning procedures
• Food safety of cloned products
• Increased problems in UK farm animals from lack of genetic diversity.

Basic research on the safety of food products from clones has not been carried out. On 6 July the EU Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a ban on food from clones and their offspring and for an immediate moratorium on all such products until the Commission can bring forward the required legislation.

It is has not been confirmed if the cloned dairy cattle in the UK have also been genetically modified.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12401

+ DOLLY CREATOR CONCERNED ABOUT CLONED COWS
Prof Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly, the cloned sheep, believes that "while the scientific evidence seems to confirm that cloned meat and milk are safe, large-scale agricultural cloning raises troubling ethical concerns about animal welfare." He said, "The production of cloned animals with the present procedures is associated with a greater than normal death of foetuses during pregnancy, difficulties at birth and death of animals after birth."

Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, said, "This is the wrong direction not just for farming, but for the planet. For human health, no evidence of danger is not the same as safe. There’s been no long term safety testing of meat or milk from cloned cattle – if business interests get their way, there never will be. It is a scandal that we’re even considering cloning animals, given that we already know that terrible suffering it imposes on surrogate mothers and the many cloned offspring where things go wrong. On this, the public are right."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12403

+ ADVERSE IMPACTS OF CLONING ON ANIMAL HEALTH: EXCELLENT REPORT
In studies on sheep, cows and mice clones, the following problems were detected:
*Placental abnormalities
*Foetal overgrowth, prolonged gestation
*Stillbirth, hypoxia, respiratory failure and circulatory problems, lack of post-natal vigour
*Increased body temperature at birth
*Malformations in the urogenital tract
*Malformations in liver and brain
*Immune dysfunction, a malformation of related organs
*Bacterial and viral infections
(Extracted from the TestBiotech report:
Cloned farm animals - a 'killing application'? (PDF)
http://bit.ly/a8y047 )

+ UPDATES ON CLONING SCANDAL IN THE UK
*UK supermarkets vow NEVER to sell clone meat or milk http://bit.ly/9RirvG

*Food Standards Agency's future in doubt after cloned cattle fiasco: http://bit.ly/d3pBre

*Food Standards Agency "believes" no milk from clones sold - in other words, it has no idea http://nyti.ms/cgIUZ1

*More Soil Association comment http://bit.ly/apYUAR

*Colin Tudge: Cloning, cruelty and how science sold out to greed http://bit.ly/cP0eq6

*The European Parliament recently voted for a ban on meat and milk from clones and their offspring http://bit.ly/c1qypc

+ SAFETY OF FOOD DERIVED FROM CLONES: THE STATE OF THE SCIENCE
*Useful study from TestBiotech: Cloned farm animals - a 'killing application'? (PDF)
http://bit.ly/a8y047

*The FDA report which is constantly cited as showing safety, based its conclusion on the safety of "cloned" milk on just 3 studies. All 3 showed some compositional differences with milk from cows not derived from clones:
http://bit.ly/a8y047 p22

*The Center for Food Safety looked at the evidence and said that any conclusions regarding safety of food derived from clones and progeny are premature http://bit.ly/a8y047 p23

*The Center for Food Safety also noted that the FDA's assessment of compositional analysis of meat and milk from clones was based on "few studies that analyse small samples".

*A poll by Eurobarometer (2008) showed 58% of European citizens thought cloning for food production could never be justified http://bit.ly/chrBKL

*Eurobarometer (2008) also showed 83% of European citizens said special labeling should be required if food products from the offspring of cloned animals came into shops http://bit.ly/chrBKL

*77% of US consumers "not comfortable" with eating cloned animal products: http://bit.ly/c44XtW

*81% of US consumers believe cloned foods should be labeled: http://bit.ly/c44XtW

*Scottish Government wants tighter controls on offspring of clones http://bit.ly/aEZMv0 National Beef Association agrees.

*Canada: Federal government investigates cloned embryo claims http://bit.ly/cOFNrE

*Scotland: Politicians urge full parliamentary inquiry into 'cloned beef' http://bit.ly/986PQY

*US: US Dept of Agriculture (2008) asked for cloned animals to be kept off market "indefinitely" in "voluntary moratorium" http://bit.ly/aAU5kc

*UK: TAKE ACTION: Why cloning should be banned - write to your MP http://bit.ly/cvrvGo
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12407
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12409