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[SANET-MG] cloned cattle deemed safe to eat or drink



The reports below include a report on cloned cattle and an article on
the study from Nature News. The original study was geared to regulators
such as those in FDA. However, that study showed some differences even
though the parameters studied were crude and relatively few. There are
micro arrays available providing a good and rapid analysis of the gene
activity of about ten thousand active genes (cattle micro array
http://cagst.animal.uiuc.edu/microarray/). The point here is that it
seems negligent of regulators to approve cloned meat based on selected
and limited data when a wide array of genes activities should have been
studied. However, I am not optimistic that FDA regulators will demand
adequate data. Their judgments seem to be tainted by corporate interests.

Beef and milk from cloned cows declared safe
Nature News
Published online: 11 April 2005; | doi:10.1038/news050411-2
Beef and milk from cloned cows declared safe
Jessica Ebert
But verdict will not quell debate over biotech foods.
The Japanese breeding bull
Kamitakafuku and his clones,
which produced meat that met
industry standards.
© David Bauman, University of
Connecticut
The composition of milk and meat from cloned cattle is no different from
those
of the same products obtained from naturally reared animals, says a team of
US and Japanese researchers.
In one of the most comprehensive comparisons carried out to date, Xiangzhong
Yang of the University of Connecticut in Storrs and his colleagues analysed
more than 100 characteristics of the products. But the researchers' data is
unlikely to defuse the debate over whether humans should actually eat these
foods.
"All the parameters examined for the clones in this study were within the
normal range of beef and dairy products approved for human consumption,"
says Yang. "We found no significant differences between the clones and their
controls." The researchers' findings appear in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences1.
Yang's team studied milk samples from four clones of a Holstein dairy
cow for routinely measured parameters
such as protein, fat, and lactose content. They found no significant
difference between these parameters in
milk from the cloned cows and from their matched controls. What's more,
meat from two clones of the famous
Japanese breeding bull Kamitakafuku fell within industry standards for
parameters such as marbling and fattyacid
composition.
We found no significant
differences between the
clones and their controls.
Xiangzhong Yang
University of Connecticut
Although the beef from cloned bulls differed from that from non-cloned
animals in certain parameters, including marbling and fatty acid
composition,
this is expected, the researchers say, because they were cloned from a
superior bull with unusually high-quality characteristics. Overall, more
than
90% of the parameters studied were the same as for non-cloned bulls, they
add.
Although a 2003 risk assessment by the US National Academy of Sciences
reported that the products from
cloned animals and their offspring pose no additional threat to the food
supply, the US Food and Drug
Administration has yet to rule on whether to allow their sale.
The latest study may help to put consumers' minds at rest on the issue,
hopes Michael Roberts, an animal
biochemist at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "My hope is that this
paper will dispel any lingering
concerns that products from cloned but otherwise genetically unmodified
animals are substantially different
from standard milk and meat," he says.
There is little indication that that is actually the case. In a survey
conducted last year by the Washington, DCbased
International Food Information Council, 62% of American consumers said
that would be "very unlikely"
or "somewhat unlikely" to buy products from cloned animals.
"The public tends to equate safety with wholesomeness and ADVERTISMENT
purity," says Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Food
Policy Institute of the Consumer Federation of America in
Washington, DC. She believes that most consumers would
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050411/pf/050411-2_pf.html (1 of
2)4/18/2005 12:57:03 PM
Beef and milk from cloned cows declared safe
react with disgust to the prospect of eating food from cloned
animals.
Yang concedes that his study involved relatively few animals,
but says that the experiments should provide a basis for more
extensive studies of cloned livestock animals. Similar findings
using a wider range of clones could give more impetus to
those who believe that the food products should be marketed.
Top
References
1. Tian X. C., et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 102. 6940
- 6946 (2005).
Top
Story from news@nature.com:
http://news.nature.com//news/2005/050411/050411-2.html
© 2004 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050411/pf/050411-2_pf.html (2 of
2)4/18/2005 12:57:03 PM
Published online before print April 13, 2005
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0500140102
Meat and milk compositions of bovine clones

X. Cindy Tian *, Chikara Kubota , Kunihito Sakashita , Yoshiaki Izaike
¶, Ryoichi Okano , Norio Tabara , Carol Curchoe *, Lavina Jacob *, Yuqin
Zhang *, Sadie Smith *, Charles Bormann *, Jie Xu *, Masumi Sato ||,
Sheila Andrew *, and Xiangzhong Yang *,**
*Center for Regenerative Biology/Department of Animal Science,
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269; Kagoshima Prefectural
Cattle Breeding Development Institute, 2200 Tsukino Osumi So-Gun
Kagoshima 899-8212, Japan; Kagoshima Prefectural Livestock Experiment
Station, 2440 Uenodan Kokubu, Kagoshima 899-4461, Japan; ¶Department of
Developmental Biology, National Institute of Agrobiological Science, 2
Ikenodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan; and ||Comparative Pathology
Section, Kyushu Research Station, National Institute of Animal Health,
2702 Chuzan Kagoshima, Kagoshima 891-0105, Japan


The technology is now available for commercial cloning of farm animals
for food production, but is the food safe for consumers? Here, we
provide data on >100 parameters that compare the composition of meat and
milk from beef and dairy cattle derived from cloning to those of
genetic- and breed-matched control animals from conventional
reproduction. The cloned animals and the comparators were managed under
the same conditions and received the same diet. The composition of the
meat and milk from the clones were largely not statistically different
from those of matched comparators, and all parameters examined were
within the normal industry standards or previously reported values. The
data generated from our match-controlled experiments provide
science-based information desired by regulatory agencies to address
public concerns about the safety of meat and milk from somatic animal clones

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