Has FDA approved animal cloning

Answer 1

There are many different techniques that have been described as "cloning".

* animal cloning: The FDA has tested cattle, swine, and goat clones, and in 2008 found that "food derived from these sources is no different from food derived from conventionally bred animals". (See links). This ends the 2001 moratorium.

* vegetative reproduction occurs naturally in some plants, and people have used it for hundreds of years to propagate a variety of plants. For example, most cultivated bananas lack seeds and so most cultivated banana trees are clones. Such propagation has always been approved by the FDA.

* "molecular cloning", "DNA cloning", typically using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), is a standard part of DNA profiling used to identify a person (forensic testing) or close relationships (paternity testing).

* therapeutic human cloning: illegal in some countries and some of the United States.

* reproductive human cloning: illegal in many countries and most of the United States.

Answer 2

No.

December 28,2006

The government declared Thursday 12/28/2006 that food from cloned animals is safe to eat. After more than five years of study, the Food and Drug Administration concluded that cloned livestock is "virtually indistinguishable" from conventional livestock. FDA believes "that meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day," said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine. Based on a final risk assessment, a report written by FDA scientists and issued in January 2008, FDA has concluded that meat and milk from cow, pig, and goat clones and the offspring of any animal clones are as safe as food we eat every day.

Cloning is far too expensive right now to be used to produce individual animals for slaughter. Instead, it's expected that cloning will be used mostly to make copies of animals with outstanding characteristics such as high milk production, excellent meat marbling or quick growth. Those clones would then be used to breed animals for market.