By IANS,
New Delhi: Animal rights organisation Humane Society International Thursday appealed to the government to prohibit the genetic engineering and cloning of farm animals for increasing egg, meat, or milk production.
In a letter to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) under the Department of Biotechnology, the organisation said that developments in biotechnology have raised new concerns about animal welfare, as farm animals now have their genomes modified (genetically engineered) or copied (cloned) to propagate certain traits useful to agribusiness, such as meat yield or feed conversion.
Guidelines on the Regulation of Scientific Experiments on Animals issued by the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) do not cover experimentation on animals in agricultural production, it said.
According to the organisation, there is a need for the Department of Biotechnology to be involved in the issue as this could have serious adverse effects on farm animal welfare.