Milk from cloned cows not for sale yet
the world's first milk from a herd of 21 cloned cows.
An experimental dairy farm in Wisconsin, US, is producing some of the world's first milk from a herd of 21 cloned cows, 17 of them from the same original animal, all genetically identical. According to Infigen, the biotech company running the farm, the cows are normal and healthy, the milk looks and tastes just like any other. Michael Bishop, president of Infigen, is not concerned about what might be wrong with the milk. "Scientifically, I have no basis to believe otherwise," Bishop said. To date there is nothing to stop him from selling it. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked biotech companies to voluntarily refrain from selling animal products derived from clones, but there are no laws in place. The FDA is waiting for the National Academy of Sciences to complete a review of the safety of cloned animal products. The report is expected sometime next January. Infigen has agreed to wait until the federal report comes out before marketing its milk. Bishop has learned from the widespread public mistrust of genetically engineered foods. Cloned animals are not considered genetically engineered, and Infigen wants to make sure the public understands the distinction. "We have to be diligent in getting in front of consumer groups. We need to put together the data, go out and tell them about this." Infigen has commissioned two studies of its own, each to see if there are, in fact, differences between its cloned milk and milk from "regular" cows. "We owe it to our consumers to show these products are normal," said Bishop. Groups that monitor genetically engineered foods say they are also concerned about cloned animal products, only because we know so little about their safety. "We do not know what the genetic ramifications would be and how it would play out with products from the animals," said Joe Mendelson, legal director for the Washington-based Center for Food Safety. According to Mendelson, the lack of regulation is troublesome. "This is definitely a loophole that we need to get a hold of." A recent study found that only two to five per cent of attempts to clone animals actually succeed, and that the animals who are born often develop serious health problems. Many appear normal, but harbour genes that do not express themselves properly. While it is unclear what kind of effect that may have on the animals, or on the people who eat their products, some cloned animals, including Dolly the cloned sheep, have shown strange symptoms like becoming abnormally obese. Mendelson thinks Infigen might just want to keep pouring its milk down the drain for a while longer. "I think as more research is done, we find out there are likely subtle variations and that the technology is not perfect."
