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| Britain |
| Britain: Foot and mouth lab's biosecurity failure causes outbreak |
| 2007-08-05 |
| A biosecurity failure at a research laboratory has been pinpointed as the likeliest source of Britain's foot and mouth outbreak. An inquiry by scientists is centring on fears that the virus escaped from the Pirbright laboratory site in Surrey, the only centre licensed to work with the foot and mouth virus. It is feared that the virus, carried on the wind, infected cattle grazing in a field three miles away. A private pharmaceuticals company, Merial Animal Health, which has been developing a foot and mouth vaccine, shares the Pirbright site with the government-funded Institute for Animal Health (IAH), which holds 5,000 strains of the virus. The Institute of Animal Health director Martin Shirley today said the IAH operated under strict bio-security procedures licensed by Defra, and there had been no breaches of the laboratory's strict biosecurity procedures. |
| Posted by:mrp |