Independent report

FAWC advice on the cloning of farm animals

Farm Animal Welfare Committee update on the evidence and animal welfare issues surrounding the cloning of farm animals.

From:
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Published
11 April 2012

Documents

FAWC advice on the cloning of farm animals

PDF, 87.2 KB, 3 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email defra.helpline@defra.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

Cloning is not currently carried out in the UK, other than in research, so the impact on commercial farm species is not a current issue.

Following a review of the current evidence FAWC concluded that:

  • the operations involved with ovum pickup should be carefully monitored
  • late gestational losses, dystocia and large offspring are likely to compromise the welfare of surrogate dams
  • due to low efficiency of cloning a high number of surrogate dams suffer pregnancy failure
  • the welfare of a significant proportion of clones themselves is adversely affected

You can read more about the work of the Farm Animal Welfare Committee.

Published 11 April 2012

Related content