Cloning: What’s the beef?

The International Food Information Service (IFIS) produces the FSTA – Food Science and Technology Abstracts® database, a resource specifically developed for the food industry. The database offers unparalleled access to a broad range of food science and technology information relating to every aspect of the food chain, including all the major food commodities plus biotechnology, microbiology, food safety, additives, nutrition, packaging and pet foods.

In this article, produced with extensive use of the FSTA – Food Science and Technology Abstracts® database, Chris Cattini, a Senior Scientific Information Officer at IFIS, discusses animal cloning and its potential impact upon the food industry.

On 15 January 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that meat and dairy products from cloned cattle, goats and pigs and their offspring are safe for human consumption. Products from cloned sheep are currently excluded from the ruling because of a shortage of available evidence to support their case.

In July 2008, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a final scientific opinion, which stated that food safety concerns are unlikely for cattle and pigs, but that caution should be exercised because the evidence base for this conclusion is small. Subsequently, the EU approved a draft regulation during the summer of 2009 which includes food from cloned animals in proposed legislation on novel foods, a move that may lead to their eventual authorisation in Europe.

Most food animal cloning has to date been conducted in the US and uses a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, in which the nucleus is removed from the oocycte, leaving an ooplast, and is replaced with a nucleus from a donor animal with desirable traits. The donor nucleus fuses with the ooplast, which then develops into an embryo and is implanted into the uterus of a surrogate animal. The resulting clone is genetically identical to the donor animal.

According to the FDA, the main use of clones would be to produce breeding stock and provide copies of the best animals in a herd. It is the offspring of these animals, generated by sexual reproduction and hence not themselves clones, that would be used as providers of meat and dairy products. Potential advantages claimed for food animal clones include disease resistance, body type particularly suited to food production, improved fertility and adaptability to particular consumer preferences. Some people have also suggested that animal cloning may provide economic benefits in developing countries, enabling the survival of rare cattle breeds that are well suited to harsh conditions. Cloned animals could allow farmers in such countries to increase milk and meat production without the use of antibiotics, hormones and drugs, all of which are very expensive.

Several studies have failed to find any significant differences between the compo­sition of meat and dairy products from cloned and conventionally bred cattle, pigs and goats. However, no research on the long term effects of cloned foods on human health have been published and the prominent pressure group, the US Centre for Food Safety, has suggested that although no overt distinctions have been observed between cloned and conventional foods, slight im­balances during the cloning process many lead to hidden food safety problems.

Considerable opposition to the FDA ruling exists, both in the USA and elsewhere. The US Centre for Food Safety claims that insufficient scientific evidence exists to support claims that cloned food is safe, and the Italian farmers’ union, Coldiretti, has threatened strong action should foods from cloned animals be approved for consumption in Europe.

In addition, the European Group on Ethics and New Technologies (EGE) has expressed doubts as to whether cloning of animals for food is ethically justified and believes that the current levels of suffering and health problems experienced by surrogate dams and animal clones are unacceptable. It has suggested a set of recommendations for implementation if cloned animals are to be introduced into the European market, covering a wide range of considerations relating to welfare, food safety, traceability and labelling. Welfare concerns have led the UK Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) to go a step further and call for an immediate ban on cloning animals for food, because it believes that any perceived benefits of cloning are not justified by the cost in terms of animal suffering.

Consumer option about such foods is divided; in a survey carried out in 2005 by the Pew Charitable Trusts in the US, nearly half of consumers believed food from cloned animals would be unsafe to eat and less than one fifth of US adults were in favour of animal cloning. Another study carried out in 2006 concluded that US public opinion had not yet crystallised and that few people had firmly made up their minds about the issue. Perceptions among EU consumers are an unknown quantity at present. Among the EGE recommendations is one suggesting that a survey should be conducted to collect indicators on public opinion in European countries.

Despite the FDA ruling, experts predict that it could take as long as five years before foods derived from cloned animals find their way into the marketplace on a significant scale. Some American food companies have already said that they will never stock products derived from cloned animals, and future developments in Europe may be influenced by public opinion, particularly about welfare issues. In the end, cloning may never amount to much more than a niche affair, even in the US.

Examples of FSTA records related to animal cloning:

• Risk assessment of meat and milk from cloned animals Nature-Biotechnology
• Animal transgenesis: state-of-the-art and applications Journal of Applied Genetics
• Animal cloning and the FDA – the risk assessment paradigm under public scrutiny Nature-Biotechnology
• The USA and animal cloning: risk and regulatory approach Theriogenology
• Assessing the quality of products from cloned cattle: an integrative approach Theriogenology
• Fourteen week feeding test of meat and milk derived from cloned cattle in the rat Theriogenology
• Compositional analysis of dairy products derived from clones and cloned transgenic cattle Theriogenology
• Comparison of meat composition from offspring of clones and conventionally produced boars Theriogenology
• Regulatory considerations on transgenic livestock in Japan in relation to the Cartagena protocol Theriogenology
• Current status of regulating biotechnology-derived animals in Canada – animal health and food safety considerations Theriogenology

For further information contact Joanne Cooper, Marketing Manager, at [email protected] or call IFIS on +44 (0)118 988 3895