Scientists find way to scan for cloned-meat

BOSTON–Did that steak come out of a test tube or from a feedlot? Did the chicken in that bucket have both a mother and father?

In other words, is someone trying to feed you meat from cloned animals?

Scientists said here yesterday that meats can be certified clone-free with DNA-tracking, a fast and cheap technique already used in some countries to certify beef and chicken as organic or hormone-free.

"Think of it as God's barcode," said Professor Patrick Cunningham, a DNA-tracking pioneer and now science adviser to the Irish government.

Originally developed to deal with public fears about meat sources during the European outbreak of Mad Cow disease in the 1990s, the method has since been improved and now costs only pennies per food item.

Cunningham said DNA-tracking could be introduced quickly and cheaply in Canada because all cattle here already get unique identity numbers that follow them through slaughter and onto store meat counters.

But government would have to pass a law requiring that all cloned animals be registered with an independent agency that kept their genetic fingerprints on file. A quick scan of a cut of meat would quickly reveal if it contained any of those fingerprints. If not, the retailer could label the meat as clone-free.
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