Cloned Cows Cause Concern

Farmers Wary As FDA Mulls Lifting Ban On Food From Cloned Animals

(AP) 
The dairy groups' position is at odds with the biotechnology industry and the small number of farmers who have invested in cloning cows.

Barb Glenn, director of animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, predicted that cloning will benefit both consumers and producers. "With any new technology, you'll have groups concerned about it," she said.

Bob Schauf, a dairy farmer from Barron, Wisconsin, about 90 miles east of Minneapolis, cloned his prize-winning Holstein about four years ago, making four copies — one of which died because of complications while calving earlier this year.

Schauf called the ban "ridiculous. It's a phobia more than anything scientific. We need to get FDA to come along and say it's fine. They're as normal as any other animal. Common sense has to take over soon."

Because the FDA has asked farmers not to sell products from cloned animals, Schauf feeds the milk to his family and employees. He said he has other elite cows that he'd like to clone but has held off because of the government action.

In 2003, the FDA issued a summary of its draft risk assessment, which found that food from cloned animals was probably as safe as that from non-cloned animals. But it asked farmers to refrain from selling products from cloned animals until a final determination is made.

Earlier this year, a study by the Center for Regenerative Biology at the University of Connecticut found that meat and milk from cloned animals is essentially identical to that of non-cloned animals.

Aside from the health issues are questions about animal welfare, because cloned animals die in higher numbers during pregnancy and right after birth. A National Academy of Sciences panel looking at cloning raised the issue in a 2002 report.