« SanDisk Yanks My Chain...Again | Main | Stuntcar Extreme Tips »
November 29, 2003
Cloned Turkey for Thanksgiving?
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled early this month that milk and meat products from cloned animals were safe for human consumption.
So when will we see cloned turkeys for Thanksgiving?
John Kirby, a professor of poultry science at the University of Arkansas, notes that the FDA referred to clones from embryonic cells. The process makes use of blastodermic cells capable of dividing, multiplying and developing into identical embryos capable of producing genetically identical animals. The structure of birds’ eggs makes this process much more difficult for poultry.
"On top of that," says Kirby, "It would be prohibitively expensive to produce cloned birds for mass consumption."
Larger, tastier birds have been successfully produced simply through selective breeding, so there isn't much call to explore costly and controversial techniques like cloning.
His conclusion: "We’ll be eating good old fashioned turkey for decades to come."
Posted by Sam in Health & Medicine
and Other
and Society / Politics