Agro-Biotechnology: - The Greens | European Free Alliance

in detail, EFSA acknowledges adverse effects in cloned animals and surrogate
dams:
“The welfare of both the surrogate dam and a significant proportion of clones
has been found to be affected by the adverse health outcomes observed.”
But EFSA (2008) does not draw the conclusion that this should be considered
unacceptable. In its opinion in 2009 in particular, EFSA puts some weight on
reports indicating an increasing rate of success. In their conclusion, the EFSA
experts even raise expectations that the success rate might be enhanced
further, thus reducing animal welfare problems:
“If the success rate of the epigenetic reprogramming is improved it is likely
that the pathologies and mortalities observed in a proportion of clones would
decrease.”
Expectations of this kind are not based on sufficient scientific evidence. There
is no doubt that the success rate of cloning in some animal species has
increased since the sheep Dolly was born. But a high rate in animal losses,
LOS related symptoms and other effects still occur according to all the studies
published, and the causes behind these problems have still not been sufficiently
determined. Furthermore, the success rate in cloning still differs significantly
from case to case. As explained, differences in the technical protocol, the
source and the status of the biological material influence the result of SCNT
as well as technical skills. Reports on higher success rates by some experts
working with distinct technical protocols and selected species cannot in any
way be seen as representative for the overall success rate of the cloning of
farm animals. EFSA's expectation (2009) can be seen as reflecting the perspective
of those companies or institutions interested in achieving further technical
progress, but it cannot be taken as a conclusion based on sufficient scientific
evidence.
Technical problems | Cloned farm animals - a ‚killing application‘? | 21