European Parliament committee calls for ban on cloning farm animals

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) A draft law to ban the cloning of all farm animals, their descendants and products derived from them, including imports, in the EU was voted by the European Parliament (EP) Environment and Agriculture committees on Wednesday.

Given that animals are already cloned for farming purposes in certain third-party countries, the law would make it illegal to import animals from third-party countries unless the import certificate shows that they are not animal clones or their descendants, said the Committee in a statement.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said in a report in 2008 that the health and welfare of a significant proportion of clones had been found to be adversely affected, often severely and with a fatal outcome.

EU citizens strongly oppose the consumption of food from animal clones or from their descendants and that the majority also disapprove of the use of cloning for farming purposes, on animal welfare and general ethical grounds, noted the report.

The draft law will be put to a vote by EP as a whole at its 7-9 September session.