Dolly for Dinner?

In the future your Sunday roast may come from a cloned animal but would this be such a bad thing? The US Food and Drug Administration has recently released draft documentation of the safety of animal clones which reports that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is as safe to eat as that from conventionally-bred animals. The clones will be used predominantly for breeding to pass on any desirable traits and should be treated just like elite breeding stock.

It remains to be seen whether consumers would feel happy with purchasing and consuming cloned meat. There is no doubt that the response to the reports will give us plenty of food for thought - Dolly for dinner anyone?

For more information on cloning of livestock please see:

Cloning livestock. Wells, D. N. CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources, 2006, Vol. 1, No. 039, pp. 21 , 269 ref.

The safety assessment of foods from transgenic and cloned animals using the comparative approach. Kelly, L. Revue Scientifique et Technique - Office International des Épizooties, 2005, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 61-74, 67 ref.