A health ministry report released Friday says that meat and milk of cows cloned from the somatic cells of adult animals are safe for human consumption.
The report by a study group of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry strengthens the likelihood that retailing of beef and milk from cloned cows could begin sometime this fiscal year, which ends next March 31.
No other country allows the consumption of meat or milk from cows cloned from the cells of adult animals due to the high rate of defects in the clones.