Cloned beef and milk

[McMouse]

It seems a small amount of beef and milk produced by the offspring of cloned embryos may have got into the food chain. Head of the Food Standards Agency says he's satisfied it's safe but what about the ethical issues. I'm thinking going veggie.

[jno]

that's the thing, AdMarlow, you could spend the rest of your life eating the same cow... strange thought.

[Fullofsorrow]

Jno wouldn't this magical cow eventually succumb to genetic mutation?

[Admarlow.]

fullofsorrow, the cows are genetically the same, how else would you describe a CLONE?

[Fullofsorrow]

Admarlow I must admit to not knowing much about cloning hence the many questions to understand it.

[youngmafbog]

Its just cloning, the DNA was not altered so what is the problem.

Its fine by me, I'll eat it or drink it.

Eat too much meat - impossible. No chance of me being a Vegiie.

[Admarlow.]

Dolly live the same length life as any sheep

[jno]

Fullofsorrow, no, you've just got a single cow, you can make a million copies of it (well, in theory; I've no idea how this actually works). If any individual copy shows mutations you could throw it away but still be left with enough identical copies to last me my lifetime.

Sounds like a wonderful, foolproof idea. Of couse, so did asbestos once.

[Booldawg]

We dont seem to have a problem eating chickens from battery farms, in my books thats meat produced in an 'unnatural way'

[steg]

Dolly died @ age of 6 years (11 - 12 years being the norm for her breed) i think they said she was put down because she had lung cancer/ lung disease

[Admarlow.]

A post-mortem examination showed she had a form of lung cancer called Jaagsiekte which is a fairly common disease of sheep and is caused by the retrovirus JSRV Roslin scientists stated that they did not think there was a connection with Dolly being a clone, and that other sheep in the same flock had died of the same disease

Such lung diseases are a particular danger for sheep kept indoors, and Dolly had to sleep inside for security reasons.



She died the same way a lot of her non cloned flock did at the same age.

[gingejbee]

So what's all the fuss about? When they interviewed that woman who had bought and eaten some of the cloned beef, she was fine about it. "It was delicious and I couldn't tell the difference and when I.......moo.......moo......". So no problem then.

[rov1200]

Nothing to worry about. In the process of trying to achieve this clone hundreds of attempts were made after getting misformed animals some with 3 legs etc.

[bxaxrxrxyx]

O.M.G. we're all going to die.

[birdie1971]

Admarlow. - Well answered that man.

I tire of people with little or no understanding of science spouting nonsense about animal cloning (or for that matter GM foods). The way people wring their hands in fear whilst talking unsubstantiated hysterical drivel, you'd think that we had travelled back to 1796 when Edward Jenner first proved the medical veracity of smallpox vaccination.

The media and the public back then did precisely what they are doing today – demonising areas of science about which they know almost nothing about because of fear due to ignorance.