Tracing Dolly – How to Find Clones using DNA AAAS, Boston, February 15 th, 2008: Dolly for Dinner Patrick Cunningham Trinity, College Dublin and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland

2 Dolly RIP

3 First Clones Sheep1996 “Dolly” Cattle1998 Goat1998 Pig2000 Rabbit2001 Horse Clones Alive: 4,000 Cattle 1,500 Pigs (US, EU, Argentina, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand.) Source: European Food Safety Authority, Dec

4 “Bring ‘em on….”

5 Implant in surrogate dam Culture somatic cells & inject nucleus Remove nucleus Nuclear DNA Source Egg Donor Activate; Fuse Cloned animal born

6 Embryo Survival During Pregnancy At Day 50AI 67% IVF 58% Clones 65% After Day 50AI Normal IVF ” Clones One third (mainly placental development) At BirthLarge Offspring; Increased perinatal mortality Source: European Food Safety Authority, Dec

7 Cloning Success Rates (Viable offspring / transferred cloned embryos) % Pigs:1%  17 % (55 embryos) Cattle:7%(3,374 embryos). 2,170 clones implanted  106 live births  82 surviving clones. (5%)(4%) Source: European Food Safety Authority, Dec

8 Cloning: Summary  No threat to human health (EFSA, FDA)  Negative impact on animal welfare  High cost, so confined to animals for breeding  Possible “no clone” product lines  Possible consumer resistance (GM parallel?). Kroger Safeway Dean Foods Wholefoods.

9 FDAUSDA Regulates the safety and labelling of all food products except traditional meats, poultry and egg products. Regulates the safety and labelling of traditional meat, poultry and egg products and has a role in promoting American food products. The Washington Post, January 16 th, 2008 “We have no further safety concerns…We conclude that meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are safe as food we eat every day.” “USDA has encouraged technology providers to maintain their voluntary moratorium on sending milk and meat from cloned animals into the food supply chain during this transition time.” Stephen Sundlof, Director, FDA Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Bruce I. Knight, Undersecretary of agriculture for marketing and regulatory programmes. What they say… Responsibility

10 GM FoodGene Therapy Nanotech Pharmacogenetics Source: Eurobarometer, Support for Four Technologies In Europe 27% 80% 45% 44% 27% Familiarity 50% 55% 50% Support

11 Reasons for Opposition:  Risk to human health;  Environmental impact;  Power of multi-national corporations;  Deterioration in food quality;  Threat to traditional farming; and  General moral acceptability.

12 Source: Eurobarometer, >>> Moral Acceptability Safety Usefulness Confidence in Regulations

13 GM Certification in EU, Japan DNA sequence Filed by developer Corn Soya etc Shipper Retailer Consumer GM ? ? ? ? Check sequence against database Processor

14 Why Traceability #1? CORN FED? CLONED?

15  Consumer protection: “What you pay for is what you get”  Retailer protection: “Guarantee of authenticity of products”  Brand protection: for producer, packer, retailer  Brand enhancement: “Adds value to added value”. Why Traceability #2?

16 Why DNA Traceability?  Unique animal identity (“God’s barcode”)  DNA the ONLY tamper-proof method  Independent  Traces product, not labels  Tracing clones is straight-forward  Tracing progeny of clones also possible i.e. paternity testing  Competitive in cost.

17 Farm Packer Retailer Consumer Carcass DNA Profiles Meat DNA Profiles Match? Meat DNA Profile Match?

18 Farm Packer Retailer Consumer Carcass DNA Profiles Meat DNA Profiles Match? Clone DNA Profile Match? Meat DNA Profile Match? Cloned Animal Animal DNA Profiles Match?

19 Thank you