EU renews bid to ban food from cloned cattle
19/12/2013
If approved, the rules would ban the use of cloning in commercial farming for five years, and prohibit the sale and import of food such as meat or milk from cloned animals.
However, food from the offspring of clones would be allowed because it has been ruled that welfare concerns surrounding animal cloning do not apply to their conventionally bred offspring.
"The proposals seek to ensure that no cloning for farming purposes will be carried out in the European Union, and no such clone will be imported as long as animal welfare concerns persist," said European health commissioner Tonio Borg.
The draft rules could run into opposition in the European Parliament, which previously said it would only accept the sale of food from the young of clones if all products were clearly labelled.
The US is one of the most advanced countries in terms of commercial animal cloning. The US Food and Drug Administration has said there are only a few hundred cloned cattle in the US, but other estimates suggest there could be several thousand.
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