Date: Wed 5 Sep 2007 09:21:27 -0500
Source: BBC News [edited]
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6979891.stm>


Investigators say the virus that led to the foot-and-mouth outbreak
in Surrey had probably been present in a pipe on the nearby Pirbright
laboratory site.

Health and Safety Executive [HSE] findings, given to the BBC,
identified biosecurity lapses at the site. It said the pipe, which
runs from pharmaceutical firm Merial to a plant operated by a
government-run lab, may have been damaged by tree roots.

Merial said it could not comment until the report was officially
published. It said it "cannot speculate on pipes or anything else".

It is believed the pipe may have been damaged by tree roots before
flooding pushed virus traces to the surface. It is not known how the
virus found its way on to farmland a few miles way following the
flooding on 20 Jul 2007.

But the HSE investigation did establish that contractors working at
Pirbright at the time travelled to and from the site using a country
road adjoining the farmland where the 1st outbreak was detected in
August [2007].

A Merial spokesman said: "The report comes out on Friday [7 Sep
2007]. [Until] that comes out and we know what's what -- and there's
no way we'll know before then -- we can't speculate."

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said
it did not comment on leaked reports, but a spokeswoman said: "There
are lessons for all of us to learn."

The Pirbright lab complex is shared by the Institute for Animal
Health (IAH), an international diagnostic laboratory, and the private
pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health.

Experts were sent to the Pirbright site after it emerged that the
strain of disease being studied there was the same as the one that
infected cattle at a farm in Guildford at the beginning of August [2007].

The BBC understands that ongoing talks are taking place between
Merial and the government about whose responsibility it is to
maintain the pipe.  There is also concern that worries about the
condition of the pipe escaped the notice of government inspectors who
licensed the laboratories.  A broader investigation by leading
scientist Professor Sir Brian Spratt has highlighted a lack of
co-ordination in bio-security between Merial and the IAH.

The Defra spokeswoman said she would not comment on speculation about
the investigations. "These reports will be published in full on
Friday [7 Sep 2007] alongside a statement of the further actions that
the government will be taking in the light of these reports," she said.

Michael Jack, the Tory chairman of the Commons committee on
environment, food, and rural affairs, said he was alarmed by the
apparent findings. "I would have thought that on a sensitive site
like Pirbright, biosecurity would have been addressed in terms of
looking at every way in which material on the site comes in and
leaves -- whether it be by a lorry, people, pipes, or any other
means," he told BBC Radio 4's World At One. "I think this report
shows a disturbing -- perhaps -- lapse in investigating all the ways
in which material went in and out of this particular site.''

The disease outbreak became apparent on 3 Aug [2007] in a herd of
cattle kept by farmer Roger Pride in fields at Normandy, near
Guildford.  A neighbouring herd at Woolford Farm tested positive a
few days later.

Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union, said there
must never be another outbreak. "Farming has been dramatically
affected. Our export markets [and] our movement of animals within the
UK [have] been shut down for quite a long period of time."  He said
he had talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday [5 Sep
2007]. "What I said to him, quite bluntly, was we must make sure that
the investment takes place to make sure this never ever happens again
to the farming industry," he said.

[Byline: David Shukman, Pallab Ghosh]

- --
Communicated by:
Richard W. Wilsnack, PhD
Department of Clinical Neuroscience
University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences
USA
<rwilsnac@medicine.nodak.edu>

[Much of our current thinking about the genesis of emerging diseases
uses the analogy of a perfect storm of events gone terribly wrong.
Epidemiologists often say that outbreaks of disease result from a
cascade of unfortunate or poorly thought through events. Clearly this
early synopsis indicates that there have been multiple mistakes, and
even though redundant systems appear to have been in place, multiple
failures in the wrong places at the wrong time can lead to almost
inconceivable disease events such as the escape of the virus from the
Pirbright facility.

However, this time case identification and surveillance -- which must
always be the backbone and ultimate backstop against animal disease
outbreaks -- successfully contained the disease. Fortunately, this
last redundant system didn't fail and we should all be grateful to
everyone who played a part in it, from the farmers to the Chief
Veterinary Officer. All in all, well done. - Mod.PC]