The parliamentary resolution was adopted by 622 MEPs in favour with just 32 against amid 25 abstentions.
It calls for an EU-wide ban on food from cloning animals; on farming cloned animals or their offspring for food supply purposes; on placing meat or dairy products derived from cloned animals or their offspring on the market, and; on importing cloned animals, their offspring, semen or embryos as well as meat or dairy products derived from cloned animals or their offspring.
The move follows the publication of a highly cautious scientific opinion by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the implications of animal cloning on food safety, animal health and the environment (EurActiv 25/07/08).
While EFSA had found that "food safety concerns are considered unlikely," it warned that the lack of available data on the subject meant the risk assessment was plagued by uncertainty and should be reconsidered at a later date. The EFSA report had also highlighted the "significant animal health and welfare issues" faced by cloned animals compared to conventionally bread ones.
MEPs are therefore highlighting the risk that whole herds could be decimated by disease and point to an EU Directive on the protection of farm animals, which bans any natural or artificial breeding procedures likely to cause suffering or injury, as a basis for a ban.
Currently no products derived from cloned animals are sold in Europe or the rest of the world, but experts believe that such products could reach the market by 2010, notably in the United States, where the Food and Drug Administration concluded in January that meat and milk from clones of cattle, pigs and goats and their offspring "are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals".
"Not only is it a case of food safety, we in Europe believe that we are producing food quality products," said EP Agriculture Committee Chairman Neil Parish (EPP-ED, UK), highlighting the need to protect animal welfare and consumer confidence.
EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Androula Vassiliou said the Commission was closely following scientific developments in this area and "is aware that even though the efficiency of animal cloning has improved over recent years, adverse health effects on animal health and welfare still occur today".
She added that the EU executive "is now evaluating the necessary steps to be taken" and would take fully into account an opinion of the European Group of Ethics, which concluded that "at the moment there are no convincing arguments to justify the production of food from clones and their offspring" (EurActiv 18/01/08).
