歐盟暫停克隆動物用於食品生產

歐盟委員會近日宣布，將在近期就克隆食品提出一項立法建議，建議歐盟在今後5年暫停用於食品生產的動物克隆，不過，仍將允許從美國等地進口用克隆動物後代生產的食品。歐盟委員會負責衛生與消費者事務的一位委員表示，克隆動物食品是安全的，與正常繁殖的動物食品沒有什麼區別；此次提出暫時禁令只是出於動物福利方面的考慮。他同時指出，克隆動物通過傳統方式繁殖的後代用於食品生產和銷售不在禁止之列，因為這些產品的源頭無法追蹤，而且對其實行禁令可能導致國際貿易混亂。

The European Union announced plans on Tuesday to temporarily ban the use of animal cloning for food production.

The European Union announced plans on Tuesday to temporarily ban the use of animal cloning for food production, while allowing imports of food derived from the offspring of clones from the United States and elsewhere.

The report from the European Commission followed a call by EU lawmakers in July for a total ban on food derived from cloned animals and their traditionally bred offspring, citing ethical concerns over the industrial production of cloned meat.

The Commission said a temporary five-year EU ban on cloning for food production was justified on animal welfare grounds, but said banning imports of food from the offspring of clones was unnecessary and would disrupt global trade.

"Food from cloned animals is safe. In fact, the scientific opinion is that it cannot be differentiated in any way from food from normally bred animals. The issue is animal welfare," EU Health and Consumer Commissioner John Dalli told reporters.

Food derived from the offspring of clones presents no such animal welfare issues, and banning its sale and import would be impossible because the origin is untraceable, Dalli said.

"Such a prohibition would lead to a ban of imports of any food of animal origin (meat, milk and processed products) from third countries allowing the cloning technique," the report said.

"We're not going to regulate for the world," Dalli added.

But animal welfare groups criticized the Commission's decision, saying it had bowed to pressure from third countries.

"We do not accept the Commission's position that it would be impossible to enforce a ban that includes the offspring of cloned animals, as (other) meat traceability systems are already in place," said Sonja Van Tichelen, director of the Eurogroup for Animals.

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(Agencies)

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）