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Canadians may have been consuming food from clones for years without knowing it, despite a Health Canada ban.
That's one of the surprising revelations from documents on cloning from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency obtained under the access-to-information legislation.
About 800 cloned dairy cattle produced through an early version of cloning called embryonic-cell nuclear transfer and from embryo splitting have been registered in Canada since the 1980s, said a CFIA background paper cloning written in 2006.
The CFIA paper said food from these clones may be sold to Canadian consumers. "There is generally no restriction on the marketing of products, by-products or the progeny of animal clones that are produced using the embryo-splitting technique in Canada or elsewhere," it said.
The CFIA paper didn't say whether milk from the cloned cows was indeed sold to consumers. An agency spokes- person didn't respond to a request for comment.
Health Canada, however, says no food from clones, including embryonic-cell nuclear-transfer clones, may be sold in the country. "It shouldn't be on the market," said Paul Duchesne, a department spokesman.
Embryonic-cell nuclear transfer...
That's one of the surprising revelations from documents on cloning from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency obtained under the access-to-information legislation.
About 800 cloned dairy cattle produced through an early version of cloning called embryonic-cell nuclear transfer and from embryo splitting have been registered in Canada since the 1980s, said a CFIA background paper cloning written in 2006.
The CFIA paper said food from these clones may be sold to Canadian consumers. "There is generally no restriction on the marketing of products, by-products or the progeny of animal clones that are produced using the embryo-splitting technique in Canada or elsewhere," it said.
The CFIA paper didn't say whether milk from the cloned cows was indeed sold to consumers. An agency spokes- person didn't respond to a request for comment.
Health Canada, however, says no food from clones, including embryonic-cell nuclear-transfer clones, may be sold in the country. "It shouldn't be on the market," said Paul Duchesne, a department spokesman.
Embryonic-cell nuclear transfer...
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