020825 Food from Cloned Animals Safe for Consumers

Washington (Reuters) - Food and biomedical products from cloned and genetically engineered animals pose no significant health risks, but stronger U.S. government oversight must be implemented to ensure its safety, a National Academy of Sciences panel said.

In a broad one-year study of animal biotechnology, researchers said there was a "low probability" consuming food from cloned livestock would trigger allergic reactions.

The Food and Drug Administration, which requested the study, is preparing to decide whether to allow the marketing of milk and meat products from hundreds of cloned cattle.

"There is a very low probability food allergies will occur, but if they do occur it could potentially be of high risk to some people," said John Vandenbergh, lead author of the study.

Cloned and gene-altered animals, such as cattle, sheep and poultry, can be farmed to provide more milk or eggs than traditional livestock. Researchers also can enhance the nutritional value of food, including lowering cholesterol in eggs and leaner meat with enhanced vitamin content.

The panel studied a handful of cloning technologies and raised the most food safety concerns with somatic cell cloning. This technique, used to make Dolly the sheep, uses an egg cell with a nucleus injected from an animal to be cloned.

Researchers said fecal matter from cloned animals could contain a larger amount of harmful bacteria, such as salmonella or E. coli O157:H7, indirectly causing a greater food safety risk. But there was not enough information available to either disprove or support this.

LAX GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT

The panel also expressed concerns that cloned and genetically engineered animals intended for biomedical purposes could find its way into the food supply due to lax federal oversight.

Researchers are working to clone animal cells, tissue and organs to treat Parkinson's, diabetes and liver disease.

The use of cloning for therapeutic purposes is highly controversial. Congress is considering either restricting or banning it. President Bush would like to prohibit all cloning involving humans.

The panel said recipients of xenotransplants could be exposed to new infectious diseases, but the "considerable risk" was not any greater when compared to other medical alternatives. The only animal under serious consideration as a xenotransplant donor was the pig.

The report said the three federal agencies that regulate animal biotechnology -- FDA, Agriculture Department, and the Environmental Protection Agency -- needed to clarify its responsibilities as many overlap.

"The current regulator framework might not be adequate to address unique problems and characteristics associated with animal biotechnologies," the panel said.

The biotechnology industry hailed the report, but said the current federal regulatory system was adequate enough to ensure public and environmental safety.

BIOTECH FISH

Researchers said its biggest concern was that biotech fish, which grow much faster than their native counterparts, could threaten the environment if they escape commercial farms and slip into nearby rivers.

Although biotech fish will not be commercially available until 2005 at the earliest, researchers said U.S. government oversight must be improved to ensure they do not escape into the wild.

"Cultivated salmon have escaped into the wild from fish farms and these salmon already pose ecological and genetic risks to native salmon stocks," the panel said in a report.

Green groups and consumer advocates petitioned the FDA last year to temporarily ban the use and sale of biotech fish, saying the technology could deplete native species.

"The report recognizes that there are many risks and virtually no controls protecting the environment or the public from the potential impacts of genetically engineered animals," said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety.

Industry officials said biotech fish currently being developed would not endanger the environment.

John McGonigle, vice president of Massachusetts-based Aqua Bounty Farms, said the transgenic salmon the company hopes to market by 2005 would be sterile females that would not reproduce in the wild. The biotech salmon, which matures twice as fast, would also not compete with their native counterparts for food.

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