06/10/05 Cloned beef

Cloned Beef A study was recently conducted to investigate the differences between beef from cloned animals and normal ones. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you the results. The findings of a comparison of cloned beef and normal beef by the Center for Regenerative Biology at the University of Connecticut found no significant difference in the two types of beef. Researchers believe this study should assure people cloned beef is safe for human consumption. The two cloned beef animals used in the study were produced in Japan. More than 100 components of beef quality were analyzed in the test. The FDA has asked the food industry not to allow products from cloned animals to enter the food chain and says it expects to have results from its own safety assessment available soon. The report from the University of Connecticut will be included in material the FDA is reviewing as a part of this study. Carole Tucker Foreman, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America, feels that the small number of animals in the study might not be adequate and wonders if researchers who specialize in reproductive biology would be a truly disinterested group to test the differences between cloned and normal meat. She states also there is evidence cloned animals suffer from increased stress and stressed animals are known to produce pathogens which can cause disease. Well, that seems to be two pretty different opinions of the University's study. Personally, I think the cloning of animals is going a little too far and the idea of cloning should be reserved for use in Hollywood to help produce the ultimate scary movie. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Livestock Reporter A/P