FDA Opens Cloning Assessment for Public Comment

Dec 29, 2006 2:00 AM

WASHINGTON -- As expected, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday issued a “draft risk assessment” indicating that the meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs and sheep and the offspring of such animals is safe to eat. The public has 90 days to comment on the findings. “The draft risk assessment has determined that meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe to eat as food we eat every day,” said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of FDA‘s Center for Veterinary Medicine, in a statement issued yesterday on FDA‘s website, www.fda.gov. The assessment and related filings pointed out that because of the high cost of cloning, most meat and milk is expected to come from the sexually reproduced offspring of the cloned animals, not the cloned animals themselves.