Send in the clones – with two veg on the side

Would you eat the steak at your favourite restaurant if you knew the cut of beef was from a cloned and not a naturally bred animal?

Although cloned meat is far off in South Africa, a recent decision by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals has sparked major debate in that country.

The FDA's decision to declare cloned meat and milk safe for human consumption has another repercussion in that the products will not have to be labelled any differently.

It has added fuel to the fire, with some critics believing consumers should be told what they are going to eat.

However, scientists argue that there is absolutely no difference between cloned meat and milk and products produced by more conventional means.

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) in the US has joined the argument, demanding that cloned food be labelled as such.

In a press release on its website, the CFS condemns what it calls the FDA's “irresponsible determination that milk and meat from cloned animals are safe for sale to the public”.

Although both human and animal cloning is legislated in South Africa, there is no legislation preventing the sale of food products from cloned animals.

Department of Agriculture spokesperson Priscilla Sehoole said: “Yes, there is legislation governing animal cloning. However, the policy is limited to the conservation of endangered breeds of animals.”

SA's first cloned animal

Agricultural Research Council (ARC) germplasm and reproductive and biotechnology head Dr Lucky Nedambale said preparations for a new cloning project, in partnership with the Hungarian Biotechnology Centre, were under way.

“It will be for domestic animals, especially indigenous animals such as Zulu and Damara sheep, which are a challenge because they are both on the verge of extinction.”

In 2003, South African scientists produced Africa's first cloned animal when they successfully replicated the country's record-breaking dairy cow. The clone, which was known as Futhi — Zulu for repeat — lived for three years before dying of pneumonia in 2006, but not before she was milked and had produced a calf.

Dr Morne de la Rey, who was involved in the cloning, said her milk was never sold to the public.

“The milk was tested by the ARC within the spectrum of normal milk,” De La Rey said. “The results were within the normal specs. But in South Africa there is no law against the making and selling of cloned milk or beef.”

The head of the Wildlife Biological Resource Centre, Dr Paul Bartels, said there had been little progress locally in the cloning of domestic animals for meat or milk production.

He said the obstacles facing cloning in South Africa were daunting.

“The challenges are enormous. Firstly, the market is very small. Secondly, each procedure is more expensive than, for example, artificial insemination, which is used extensively in the South African dairy industry as compared to the beef industry.”

Source: Sunday Times

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