Cloned horses latest move for controversial field
Date: 7.4.2006
The company that cloned the first horse to be sold commercially said on Thursday it plans to market 22 similar animals before 2008, marking another step forward for the controversial technology.
ViaGen Inc., based in Austin, Texas, said the mare was born on February 19 in Oklahoma, and predicted it would one day produce 100 cloned horses a year, each fetching about $150,000.
The company's announcement comes three years after the first cloned horse was created by Italian scientists in 2003.
While scientific evidence and a preliminary report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2003 have offered few signs that cloned products such as meat and milk are not safe, public opinion polls have shown that consumers are skeptical.
"One of the issues I've had all along with cloning is that just because we can do something scientifically doesn't mean we should do it," said Greg Jaffe, a spokesman at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Hundreds of livestock animals already have been cloned, but producers and the nascent industry have voluntarily agreed not to sell milk and meat from cloned animals until the FDA determines if they are safe to eat. A ruling is expected this year.
"At the end of the day ViaGen's focus is on beef, dairy and pork," said Mark Walton, president of ViaGen.
Even if the U.S. government declares cloned animals are safe to eat, it could be a while before products make their way to grocery store shelves, food analysts predict.
Even cloning proponents concede a consumer market may be years away. Brad Stroud, a veterinarian with Encore Genetics Ltd., which will market the cloned horses, said even if the FDA declared products from cloned livestock animals to be safe, it would take several years before lower costs and public acceptance pave the way for wider use of the technology.
"I don't think we are ready technically to enter those markets (for beef, dairy and pork) on a massive scale," said Stroud. "We have two or three years of research before this becomes affordable."
A cloned calf can sell for as much as $82,000, compared to an average calf that costs less than $1,000.
Even cloned horses carry a lofty price tag and The Jockey Club, which monitors thoroughbreds, does not allow cloned animals to race.
"Source":[ http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-03-30T230618Z_01_N30197597_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-SCIENCE-CLONING-HORSES-DC.XML].
