European parliament calls for ban on cloned farm animals

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

BRUSSELS (AFP) — The European parliament on Wednesday urged the EU's executive branch to ban the cloning of animals for the food trade, citing reduced genetic diversity among other concerns.

"Today MEPs showed they care about animals by voting for a ban on cloning for food. We now call on the Commission to follow their good example and come up with a strong proposal that will protect the welfare of animals," said Neil Parish, president of the Parliamentary Intergroup on Animal Welfare.

Several expert groups, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies, outlined problems such as the animals' well-being and the higher mortality rate of cloned animals.

They also stressed that cloning...