Food Derived From Cloned Animals And Their Offspring

Introduction
Cloned animals and their products has been the subject of recent and increasing attention and discussion among government policymakers, research scientists, media and the general public. In late December 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its draft risk assessment on the safety of food derived from cloned animals.

What is cloning?
Animal cloning is an emerging technology involving a number of species including food producing animals, such as cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. It is a different technology to genetic modification which allows food producers to alter certain characteristics of a food crop by introducing genetic material and proteins from another source - an example of this is a corn plant with a gene that makes it resistant to insect attack.

Cloning animals involves the replacement of all genetic material in an egg with a mature cell containing the complete genetic code from the donor animal to be cloned. The mature egg is then implanted into a surrogate mother who carries the cloned animal to term.

Are there cloned animals in Australia and New Zealand?
In Australia and New Zealand, the cloning of livestock animals is still in the experimental stages and is restricted to very small numbers of elite breeding stock, predominantly in dairy and beef cattle (less than 100), and also in small numbers of sheep.

All cloned animals are currently confined to the research environment and do not enter the food chain. There is a voluntary agreement in place by Australian and New Zealand researchers and industry on the placing of food from cloned animals or their offspring into the food chain.

What actions are food regulators taking?
The cloned animal itself is unlikely to end up in the food supply as they are expensive experimental animals. However, in the future, their offspring (which are conventionally bred usually from a cloned and a non-cloned animal) will become more common.

Since it is likely that cloning techniques will continue to improve in the future several countries, including Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Japan and the USA are considering whether there is a need to regulate food from cloned animals and their offspring.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ ) has been monitoring international developments on this issue for a number of years and has sought policy advice from the Australian Government on this issue. FSANZ is assessing the food safety evidence contained in the FDA draft risk assessment report and will provide its analysis to the Australian Government for consideration.

For more information see: Review on the Current Status of the Extent and Use of Cloning in Animal Production in Australia and New Zealand 2003 http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/Cloning_Review_Final_June%202003.doc

www.foodstandards.gov.au