Poorly maintained drains the culprit in British foot-and-mouth outbreak

Sep 10 2007

An official report into the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Surrey, England has found that the source was most likely a leaking drain on the nearby Pirbright laboratory site.

The foot-and-mouth outbreak was confirmed at two farms in a 10km surveillance zone near Guildford at the beginning of August and the report has revealed that repairs had not been carried out at the Institute for Animal Health's (IAH) Pirbright site, due to a disagreement between staff at the government laboratory and the neighbouring Merial drugs company over who should pay for maintenance.

The Environment Secretary Hilary Benn says the reports indicate that the most likely explanation for the outbreak was weaknesses in the drains, the heavy rain and floods, the building work taking place on the site, and the movement of vehicles.

Dr. Debby Reynolds the government's chief vet says she is satisfied the country is now free from foot-and-mouth after more than 8,000 samples from animals had been tested, and all the animals tested were healthy.

However the UK will not achieve international foot-and-mouth disease-free status until 7 November.

It has emerged that government officials were aware four years ago that the drains beneath the laboratory were insecure and that the virus could potentially escape, but failed to carry out repairs.

The outbreak resulted in hundreds of animals being culled to contain the outbreak and livestock movements were blocked across Britain, costing farmers millions of pounds.

The official report says the virus had probably leaked from the poorly maintained drains into surrounding soil and was then probably carried to the surface by floodwater; it then spread to animals on a nearby farm through contaminated soil stuck to the vehicles of building contractors who were working on the site.

Mr Benn says, that the virus escaped from the Pirbright facility, is inexcusable, and the dispute over responsibility for the drains between the IAH and Merial, a private vaccine company that leases a building on the site, may have to be decided by a court.

At present Merial is not accepting any liability for leaking the virus and the Health and Safety Executive ( HSE ) says in it's report that there was a lack of communication between IAH and Merial about whether the company's effluent passing into the drain would contain the live virus or not.

The IAH had been accused of complacency regarding biosafety and not maintaining and inspecting the drains regularly.

The restrictions imposed on livestock movement in the UK following the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak have now been lifted and the surveillance zone around the two infected Surrey farms has also been removed.