Animals suffer from cloning warns EU

Farming cloned livestock should be banned because the animals suffer too much, EU ethics experts said last night.

Animal welfare campaigners welcomed the call from the European Group on Ethics.

RSPCA scientist Dr Nikki Osborne said: "Cloning causes untold suffering but is purely commercial. The cost in welfare in no way justifies any perceived benefits."

The ethics group wants safety and welfare conditions on any decision to accept clone farm food. But they are so strict they could make it too difficult to farm clones commercially.

The report was triggered after the Daily Mail revealed last January that a clone farm calf called Dundee Paradise had been born on a Shropshire farm.

Cloning breeding stock could create monster pigs and supersize cows.