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Abstract
Finding solutions will be even harder than the regulation of animal biotechnology or the funding of high-quality research into risks and benefits. But experience to date, notably outside the USA, in the public's knowledge of and reactions to genetically modified crops, including the destruction of test crops by activists, shows that reactions of the public about animal biotechnology are likely to be as extreme. Because risks, especially in agriculture and on the environment, remain unknown, a strict regulatory framework for the environment and for animal husbandry is urgently needed, as a first step, to help to assuage extreme reactions about animal biotechnology from the public. Then must follow education of and wide consultation with the public, so that society can resolve conflicting views about the necessity for and the safety of animal biotechnology. Many will argue that the need for new clinical applications of the genetic manipulation of animals overrides ethical and societal arguments against the new techniques. The battleground will be, as for genetically modified crops, in genetic manipulation to improve food sources when environmental risks are unknown.