Are there cloned animals in Australia and New Zealand?
In Australia and New Zealand, the cloning of livestock animals which is restricted to small numbers of elite breeding stock, predominantly dairy and beef cattle (less than 100 in Australia) and small numbers of sheep, is still in the experimental stages. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has liaised closely with Australian and New Zealand leading researchers and industry in the livestock cloning area for several years now. FSANZ has been informed by those researchers that cloned animals produced by them are currently confined to the research environment and do not enter the food chain. In the future the cloned animal itself is unlikely to end up in the food supply as they are expensive experimental animals. As cloning techniques continue to improve a number of countries are considering the issue of the safety of consumption of products from cloned animals, their progeny and further descendants. FSANZ has been monitoring international developments on this issue for a number o
