Compassion in World Farming has welcomed the vote by the European Parliament to prohibit food from cloned farm animals and their offspring on the market.

The decision came during the Parliament's Second Reading of the proposed Novel Foods Regulation.

"The overwhelming vote against the sale of food from cloned animals in European markets is good news both for consumers and farm animals," said our Chief Executive Officer Philip Lymbery.

"Compassion's own research demonstrates that cloning entails severe health and welfare problems for both cloned animals and their surrogate dams. This view is supported by the European Food Safety Authority's findings that cloning poses serious health risks for farm animals, including a significant percentage of deaths through cardiovascular failure, respiratory problems, liver or kidney failure, immune-deficiencies or musculoskeletal abnormalities."

Polls show that a majority of European consumers do not want cloned meat included in the food chain. Compassion also believes that it is essential for the offspring of clones to be included in the EU's future policy approach to cloning for food supply.

Philip adds, "Clones will be primarily used as elite breeding animals; it is their offspring that will be farmed for meat and milk, we do not believe that this will be acceptable to consumers."

We are now looking to the European Commission and the Member States to follow the Parliament's lead and agree legislation categorically ensuring that no products from cloned animals or their offspring are put into the European market.

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Read Philip Lymbery's blog article discussing the EU Parliament's decision

Compassion welcomes EU cloning vote