EFSA Says There’s No New Evidence To Support Changing Current Conclusions On Cloning

After a review of recent scientific studies on animal clones and their offspring, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stated that there’s no reason to reconsider earlier conclusions on cloning. Animal cloning involves genetically copying an animal by replacing the nucleus of an unfertilized egg cell with the nucleus of a body cell to form an embryo, which is implanted in a surrogate mother to develop until birth. The EFSA had concluded earlier that mortality rates and developmental abnormalities are higher in animal clones, but there is no indication that the meat and milk of clones and offspring are different from conventionally bred animals. The agency also said that because of a lack of information on other species, cloning can only be done on cattle and pigs.