by John Cowley

Created on: September 10, 2008   Last Updated: September 12, 2008

The food derived from cloned animals is no different from the food derived from animals produced by sexual reproductive. If there are any dangers from cloning then they reside not in the consumption of cloned animal products, but in the viability of cloned animals in the face of future epidemics of diseases like foot and mouth, or mad cow disease. Cells produced in the cloning process are 99% genetically identical to the cells taken from the organism being cloned. Cloned animals are siblings rather offspring and they share the vast majority of their characteristics, similar in many ways to identical twins. If there is a pre-disposition to weakness in the face of any particular disease then all clones tend to share this weakness. Because sexual reproduction combines the characteristics of two individuals in many unique ways, there is a greater chance of producing offspring that are genetically resistant to endemic diseases.

The cloning process does open up the possibility of contamination during the insertion of genetic material into the maternal egg, although the chances of this happening are very minimal. During the cloning process there is a small possibility of accidental damage to the chromosomes carrying the genes being inserted into the egg, although the risks are probably no greater than those which occur during normal sexual reproduction. However, strict controls are essential to alleviate the possibility of such events and to help reassure an already skeptical public. Deliberate manipulation of the genetic material during the cloning process comes under the heading of Genetic Modification, the same process used to produce GM food crops, and this is possibly what most people are really afraid of.

Genetic modification in animals involves the splicing of foreign genes into one or more chromosomes before their insertion into the maternal egg. These foreign genes may in some instances come from quite different species. It is possible to use the genes of wild animals, which have demonstrated a natural resistance to a particular disease, thus conferring this same resistance to domestic animals whose meat is subsequently used for human consumption. There is a fear that when eaten these foreign genes will somehow infect the human genome and produce chimeras that are only part human. Fortunately the human digestive process is such that all protein is broken down into its constituent amino acids before it can be absorbed into our cells. Foreign genes present in

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