THE European Parliament voted earlier this week for a permanent ban on the cloning for food of all farm animals - including horses - as well as the import of cloned livestock and the sale of food from such animals and their offspring.

The European anti-cloning draft legislation has set up a potential clash with national governments across Europe.

This week, the EU assembly significantly tightened up a 2013 proposal by EU regulators that would have provisionally prohibited the cloning of some animals -- cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and horses -- and the sale of animal clones and embryo clones.

On Tuesday, the EU Parliament extended the scope of that ban to cover all species of animals kept and reproduced for farming and food purposes.

Large majority

A large majority of MEPs - 529 For to 120 Against - voted to adopt the legislative report by Italian MEP Giulia Moi (EFDD group) and German MEP Renate Sommer (EPP group). They cited animal welfare and food safety concerns in the report.

The ban does not cover cloning for research purposes, nor does it prevent efforts to clone endangered animal species.

However the positive reaction in Ireland to the cloning of the great Irish Sport Horse Cruising, first revealed by The Irish Field, was flagged up to the EU Parliament by Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness.

Earlier this year it was revealed in The Irish Field that the great Irish Sport Horse show jumper had been cloned by owner Mary McCann of Hartwell Stud. His two clones, Cruising Arish and Cruising Encore (pictured), are now three years old and stood at stud for the first time in 2015.

Mairead McGuinness told The Irish Field yesterday: “There is a very anti-cloning view in the EU Parliament arising from a general fear of it, the protection of the food chain and whether it will extend to human beings in the future.

“I attended this debate where I raised the whole Cruising show jumping story which was so positively received in Ireland.

“For my part, I reported on the very positive experience and reaction in Ireland to the cloning of Cruising.

Long road ahead

“I wanted people to open their minds before they close them. It’s my view that when this comes back before the EU Council that the Council may well have a different view and it might never come to pass at all. I cannot see the Council agreeing to the Parliament’s extreme views on cloning,’’ said the Irish MEP. “There is a long road ahead - possibly two years - before this issue will come back to the EU Council,” added McGuinness.

Two years ago the proposal from the European Commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, was less strict - stopping short of including the offspring of cloned animals.

The EU Parliament is seeking to use the draft European ban on cloning to bolster Europe’s better-safe-than-sorry policy on food safety.

Companies in the United States and in China are cloning livestock for breeding and for research purposes, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found no significant differences between healthy clones and healthy animals from conventional breeding.

It considers meat and other products form clones to be as safe as that from other farm animals.

The EU Parliament vote bids to ensure that meat from cloned animals does not end up on European dinner plates.