Report says cloned animals safe to eat

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Eating meat or drinking milk from cloned animals is probably safe, experts from the National Academies of Science concluded after reviewing what little research exists on the topic.

The report was requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help it decide whether meat from cloned animals could be sold for human consumption.

There are currently several hundred cloned animals in the United States -- primarily cows and pigs. The likelihood that these genetically engineered animals would trigger allergic reactions in people is low, a committee from the academies determined.

But the 12-member panel cautioned that it is difficult to assess allergenicity since it can only be detected once a person is exposed and experiences a reaction.

"As is the case with any new technology, it is almost impossible to state that there is no concern, and in certain areas of animal biotechnology we did identify some legitimate ones," the committee's chairman, North Carolina State University zoology professor John G. Vandenbergh, said in a statement accompanying the report Tuesday.

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"By identifying these concerns, we hope we can help this technology be applied as safely as possible without denying the public its potential benefits," Vandenbergh said.

While the experts said eating meat from cloned animals was probably safe, they raised questions about other aspects of animal bioengineering.

They warned that certain genetically engineered animals would pose a risk to the environment if they escaped and introduced their genes into wild populations or overtake them.

For example, salmon that have been genetically engineered to grow bigger and faster could compete more successfully for food and mates than wild salmon if they escaped into the natural environment. That could endanger the wild species, the panel concluded.

The last concern the group had involved animals that were engineered to produce drugs in their milk -- and whether proteins produced by these animals would find their way into the animal's meat, possibly passing the drug on to people who ate the animal but didn't need the medicine.

The committee was not asked to make any policy recommendations. It suggested the current regulatory framework may not be adequate, given the responsibilities of federal agencies for regulating animal biotechnology are unclear in some respects.