Brown and Benn pursue lab leak link
Monday, 6 August 2007 12:00 AM
A report into the origins of the foot and mouth outbreak is expected within 48 hours, the prime minister has confirmed.
Officials from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are investigating claims a biosecurity breach at a private laboratory could have reintroduced foot and mouth to the Sussex countryside.
Initial tests confirmed the strain of the disease found at a cattle farm near Guildford in Surrey is identical to that used for vaccines at a laboratory site three kilometres away.
The Pirbright research site is home to the private Merial Animal Health pharmaceutical company and the government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH).
Workers within the site claim biosecurity measures are stringent but the environment secretary confirmed investigations are now focusing on the two companies.
Hilary Benn told Radio 4's Today programme the link was "the most promising line of inquiry".
Merial managing director David Biland has insisted the correct procedures were followed.
Opposition politicians claim the link puts the government in the spotlight, although ministers have so far been praised for their swift response to the outbreak.
Lib Dem environment spokesman Chris Huhne said the government has a responsibility to ensure safe research.
Both Merial and the IAH are routinely inspected and regulated by Defra and the Health and Safety Executive, but Mr Huhne questioned whether inspection regimes for animal vaccines are as tough as those imposed on human disease.
David Cameron, who has cancelled his holiday to meet with farmers at Cranleigh Agricultural Show, said the incident posed "very serious questions" for the government.
Mr Cameron said: "If it turns out that the virus was released either from the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright or from the next-door lab at Merial - which, by the way, is inspected and licensed by the government - it will be astonishing news, because the organisations responsible for stopping things like foot and mouth will effectively be responsible for starting it."
Gordon Brown has also been meeting with farmers and will later tour affected areas in Surrey.
This morning he met with the National Farmers' Union (NFU) at Downing Street. Mr Brown told NFU president Peter Kendall and director general Richard McDonald the government was doing all it can to protect the countryside.
Mr Brown has already promised to "contain and control" the virus. "Every measure is being taken so we have the biosecurity we need," he said.
The government acted within hours of the outbreak to establish an exclusion zone and a national ban on the movement of livestock has been imposed.
Mr Benn has further commissioned a review of biosecurity arrangements, led by Brian Spratt of Imperial College London.
No further cases of foot and mouth have been identified but farmers and rural residents across the country are urged to be vigilant.
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