Meating Place.com: Biotechnology shakes up the industry (re: cloning animals)

October 28, 2005

SPECIAL FEATURE from a meat industry e-magazine

Live from WWFE: Biotechnology shakes up the industry

by Deborah Silver on 10/27/2005 for Meatingplace.com CHICAGO — Wednesday's

educational program at the Worldwide Food Expo tackled the controversial issue

of animal biotechnology, looking specifically at transgenics and cloning.

According to Martina Newell-McGloughlin, director of the University of

California Systemwide Biotech Research and Education Program, transgenics is

garnering major research attention these days. The procedure ultimately could

lead to more efficient production of animal-derived foods, as well as transform

animals into production farm factories for pharmaceutical proteins, such as

collagen. " That's where the big money is, " said McGloughlin.

McGloughlin believes that cloning has significant potential, including the

ability to develop high-merit farm animals, duplicate valuable " pharm " animals,

and create a homogeneous population of cells, tissues and even organs that can

be transferred to organ-failure patients.

There is a downside, however. Cloning is very expensive, with only a 2 percent

to 3 percent success rate at present. The risk of disease transfer exists, as

does the inadvertent selection of undesirable characteristics. But according to

McGloughlin, " most clones appear to be perfectly normal. "

She also considers the food-safety concerns voiced by opponents of cloning to be

unjustified. " There is no evidence that clones pose a safety concern, " she said.

McGloughlin believes that by the end of 2006, the Food and Drug Administration,

which regulates transgenic and cloned animals, will approve some meat from the

offspring of cloned animals for sale in the marketplace. The cloned animals

themselves, however, will not be sold as products. " The pricetag to develop a

cloned animal is simply too high for it to become food, " she said.

One audience member expressed concern over both transgenics and cloning. Dr.

Temple Grandin, associate professor of livestock handling and behavior at

Colorado State University in Fort Collins, noted that, despite the fact that FDA

considers transgenic and cloned animals new forms of animal drugs (hence, FDA's

jurisdiction over them), they are indeed still animals. " The physical and

biological stress on animals has to be addressed, no matter how the animals came

to be, " said Grandin.

Ms. Paris Harvey bitebackvegan 925 788 8296 (PST)

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