Cloning animals in the developing world

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6288941.stm

Last Updated: Thursday, 25 January 2007, 22:38 GMT

 

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Developing nations need cloning

 

VIEWPOINT

Calestous Juma

 

 

Animal cloning can help deliver environmental benefits in developing

nations, says Professor Caletous Juma. In this week's Green Room, he

argues that biotechnology could ensure the survival of rare cattle

breeds that are well suited to cope with harsh conditions.

 

 

Anticipated impacts of climate change are likely to have far-reaching

implications for the livestock industries of poor nations

 

After five years of study, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

recently announced that food from cloned animals is safe to eat.

 

Some consumer organisations, however, remain uneasy about the decision

and are calling for an examination of the ethical aspects of cloning.

 

While their concerns are understandable, they fail to take into

account the potential environmental benefits of cloning, especially

for developing countries.

 

For example, anticipated impacts of climate change are likely to have

far-reaching implications for the livestock industries of poor

nations, especially those in Africa.

 

Adapting to such disruptions will require additional investments in

technological innovation, including animal cloning for food and

conservation.

 

Africa's farming systems are already under stress. Cattle breeds

resistant to diseases such as sleeping sickness are dwindling at an

alarming rate as local farmers adopt larger zebu breeds to replace

their hardier but smaller taurine relatives.

 

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that nearly

1,500, or 30%, of livestock breeds are threatened with extinction,

most of which are in developing countries. Less than 100 are currently

being conserved.

 

Ecological disruption is likely to accelerate such trends. Slowing the

decline will require the use of reproductive techniques such as animal

cloning for predictable livestock production, in addition to expanded

breeding conservation programmes.

 

Seeking stability

 

Adapting to ecological disruption and maintaining economic stability

could benefit from cloning.

 

This will help farmers in developing countries increase meat and milk

production without the use of expensive hormones, antibiotics and

chemicals. Such uses could also have positive environmental benefits.

 

 

Arguments need to be considered in light of new scientific evidence

and the needs of developing countries

 

 

 

Send us your comments

 

Researchers have already started to use cloning for conservation purposes.

 

The US-based Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species has

produced wildcat kittens (Felis libyca) from cloned adults.

 

Scientists are hoping to use cloning to save threatened species such

as Vietnam's saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), gaur (Bos gaurus) and

banteng (Bos javanicus) and the wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee).

 

In 2004, for example, Indian scientists announced a plan to spend $1m

(£500,000) to clone the endangered Asian lion because less than 300 of

the animals were estimated to exist.

 

Other endangered species, especially fish and amphibians, could also

benefit from assisted reproductive techniques such as cloning.

 

Consumer organisations, however, raise legitimate safety and ethical

concerns about cloning. Their arguments need to be considered in light

of new scientific evidence and the needs of developing countries.

 

For example, take safety. The peer-reviewed journal Theriogenology has

published a collection of articles that examined the health of cloned

animals, their nutritional composition and other relevant parameters.

 

They came to the same conclusions as the FDA. And a nutritional study

by France's National Agricultural Research Institute (INRA) showed no

differences between meat and milk products of cloned animals and their

traditional counterparts.

 

A study covering some 100 parameters of specific proteins and

nutrients carried out by Japan's Kagoshima Prefectural Cattle Breeding

Development Institute and the University of Connecticut showed that

beef from cloned cattle could not be distinguished from that obtained

from traditionally bred cattle.

 

Food from cloned animals is therefore as safe as its conventional counterpart.

 

Researchers at Japan's Research Institute for Animal Science in

Biochemistry and Toxicology revealed that there were no significant

changes in the urine and blood of rats arising from the consumption of

meat and milk from cloned cattle.

 

There are ethical concerns that need to addressed, especially those

related to animal welfare.

 

A study conducted by Argentine, American and Brazilian scientists has

concluded there is an increase in the frequency of health risks posed

to cloned cattle in parts of their life cycle. However, the study does

not show that cloning poses risks that are qualitatively different

from those posed by conventional means.

 

Animal welfare is an important aspect of our humanity and should be

addressed by improving animal breeding and management techniques and

not by outlawing their use.

 

The scientific community should continue to work closely with animal

experts and ethicists to monitor and help improve the ethical

standards of cloning techniques.

 

Ethical dilema

 

The needs of developing countries, on other the hand, raise new

ethical issues. Their most urgent concerns are associated with having

access to techniques that will help them adapt their production system

to changing ecologies and markets.

 

Cloning is more expensive than conventional breeding methods. While

the economic benefits of cloned animals may offset the initial

investment, many of the world's poor farmers cannot afford the high

cost of cloned animals, with prices of up to $20,000 (£10,000) per

clone.

 

 

 

 

Africa to face more droughts

Climate change to dry Africa

 

The main limiting factor is the lack of domestic technical capacity in

poor countries to apply cloning techniques for economic and

conservation purposes.

 

One way forward is to create research partnerships that will help

developing countries become genuine partners in the development and

use of cloning techniques. Such arrangements will also help promote

consumer acceptance of products from cloned animals in developing

countries.

 

Contributing to advances in such technologies would not only help

developing countries raise the quality of their animal products, but

they would also help them use the techniques to restore endangered

species.

 

Critics of cloning are justified to raise concerns about the safety

and ethical aspects of cloning, but their concerns should take into

account the possible benefits of cloning for conservation purposes.

 

There is no guarantee that cloning would have a major impact on the

wider threats to species survival, but foregoing the use of these

techniques would raise new ethical concerns.

 

 

Calestous Juma is a professor of international development at Harvard

University's Kennedy School of Government, and co-chairs a high-level

expert panel of the African Union on modern biotechnology

 

The Green Room is a series of opinion pieces on environmental topics

running weekly on the BBC News website