What they’re saying about ‘cloned cows’ in Britain

Allegations that milk and beef from the offspring of an American cloned cow may have been sold in Britain have opened a debate over whether such products are harmful.

The controversy began when an unnamed British dairy farmer told the New York Times that he had sold milk from a cow bred from the American clone. This is against a new EU law - yet to come into effect - which bans the sale of meat and dairy products from clones and their offspring.

The Food Standards Agency launched an inquiry, in the course of which it identified a Holstein cow, Dundee Paradise, which is the offspring of the American clone.

However, the FSA could not confirm whether Dundee Paradise was the same cow the farmer told the New York Times about. The farmer who owns the cow says he has only used Dundee Paradise to create embryos for sale abroad.

The FSA investigation has also discovered a farm in Nairn in the Highlands of Scotland which was home to two other offspring of a cloned cow.

The FSA said: "The first, Dundee Paratrooper, was born in December 2006 and was slaughtered in July 2009. Meat from this animal entered the food chain and will have been eaten.

"The second, Dundee Perfect, was born in March 2007 and was slaughtered on July 27 2010. Meat from this animal has been stopped from entering the food chain."

The media have had a field day with the news that we may be eating what the Daily Mail is misleadingly calling "clone beef". A headline in the paper yesterday said: '100 CLONE COWS ON UK FARMS'.

But the reaction of some experts suggests that there is no problem with eating the products of the offspring of cloned cows - or indeed those of genuine cloned cows.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING:Grahame Bulfield, former director of the Roslin Institute, which cloned Dolly the sheep: "Given that the farmer wishes to remain anonymous, it is very difficult to evaluate this story. So it should be taken with a pinch of salt. I don't know of any cloned animals in the UK so I would be very suspicious."

David Bowles, RSPCA spokeman: "The onus is on producers to declare whether any foodstuffs come from clones or their offspring. Unless things are tightened up with a total ban, there is a certain inevitability of these foodstuffs leaking into the UK and into the food chain."

Martin Haworth, director of policy at the National Farmers Union: "The scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority confirms that there are no food safety risks posed by the products of offspring from cloned animals."

Peter Stevenson, Compassion in World Farming: "Cloning is at the sharp end of the inhumane selective breeding processes that are often involved in the intensive production of meat and dairy products. Many animals suffer in the pursuit of higher yields because they are being stretched to the limits of their physical capacity."

Robin Lovell-Badge, Head of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research: "There is no genetic modification. It was for this reason that the FDA [in the US] has approved consumption of milk and beef from the offspring of cloned cattle - they are just normal animals, and I do not understand the EU position on this. Obviously the FSA have their rules and need to look into what has happened, but it is more likely to be the milk of kindness than a horror story."

Professor Hugh Pennington, food safety expert at Aberdeen University: "People are concerned about playing God and that kind of thing... rather than producing products which are dangerous to eat. There's absolutely no evidence for that, and I've got no expectation that any such evidence will ever emerge."

Daily Mail leader: "True, a five-year study in the US found no ill effects on humans. And yes, with their high yields of meat and milk, cloned cattle may make food production more efficient. But we also note that cloning can cause suffering to animals, with its links to miscarriages, organ defects, gigantism and premature deaths. And how can society yet know the long-term effects of reduced genetic diversity on cattle's immunity to disease?" ·