Food From Clones Safe, E.U. Draft Says

Similar Conclusion Expected From FDA

The European Food Safety Authority yesterday declared that meat and milk from healthy cloned cattle and pigs is "very unlikely" to pose risks to consumers, opening the door to possible European sales of those controversial foods in the future.

The highly anticipated draft scientific opinion of the European agency comes just days before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is due to release its final report on food from clones, which is expected to reach virtually the same conclusion. Some backers of the fledgling agricultural cloning industry have said they hoped that a positive report from Europe might help ease the process of gaining acceptance by American consumers.

It remains unclear, however, whether the European Union will ultimately approve the sale of cloned products, and if so, under what conditions.

Unlike in the United States, such decisions in Europe must incorporate social and ethical factors. And the European public broadly supports the "precautionary principle," which calls for society to err on the side of caution when risks are uncertain.

Moreover, the European agency, which provides scientific advice to the European Commission, noted in its report that many cloned farm animals have health problems, including life-threatening physiological abnormalities. In Europe, where animal welfare is a much higher-profile issue than it is in the United States, that reality could also become a stumbling block.

The 47-page report concluded, however, that unhealthy clones would be screened out by standard food inspection methods. And, echoing earlier assertions by the FDA, it found that milk and meat from healthy clones are as nutritious and safe as milk and meat from ordinary animals.

"Based on current knowledge there is no expectation that clones or their progeny would introduce any new food safety risks compared with conventionally bred animals," the report said.

The report also concluded that sexually produced offspring of clones -- far more likely to enter the food supply than clones themselves, which are too valuable to slaughter -- are fully normal.

Scientists at a handful of companies around the world, including at least two in the United States, want to clone prize-winning beef cattle, dairy cows and pigs as a way to bring more consistently high-quality products to market. But consumer reaction has been chilly.

Some fear that clones may harbor hidden health risks, while others decry the high death rates seen in newborn clones and the suffering of their surrogate mothers, which can have trouble giving birth to their often oversize offspring.

Despite that wariness, and despite European agriculture's general lack of interest in adopting the technology, the EU has been under international pressure to rule on the products' safety -- in part so other nations can export their meat and milk products there without worrying about trade challenges.

The issue is also of interest in Europe because farmers there use semen from American cattle.