Brown cancels family holiday to lead foot and mouth fightback

The Prime Minister decided not to return to the cottage where he was due to stay, instead setting off for Chequers.

Wife Sarah and their two sons will also abandon their Dorset cottage, and will join him later in the official grace-and-favour country retreat.

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Gordon Brown and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn talk with local farmers in Surrey. Mr Brown has called off his Dorset holiday to deal with foot and mouth disease outbreak

Downing Street's announcement came as Tory leader David Cameron set off tonight to join his own family for a holiday in Brittany. Like Mr Brown, he delayed the start of his break because of foot and mouth.

Mr Brown went to Dorset last Friday but returned the same day to chair a crisis meeting when the outbreak was revealed. He is hoping to go ahead with a holiday in Scotland at the family home next week.

"You can rest assured he will be kept up to date," said his spokesman.

Today Mr Brown and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn - who has also cut short his holiday - met National Farmers Union president Peter Kendall. Afterwards Mr Kendall said outside No10 that his members were "angry and concerned" at the possibility that a biosecurity lapse lay behind the outbreak.

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Shabby facilities: Pirbright laboratory 'in need of investment'

Experts believe the virus may have been transported by an individual or car from a Pirbright research complex to the farm at the centre of the outbreak, about four miles away.

Mr Kendall said all efforts must now focus on containing the outbreak.

Tests are being carried out to see whether the outbreak at the nearby farm can be traced back to the laboratories run by Merial Animal Health or the Institute for Animal Health.

Experts pointed the finger at the lab's air-filtration system, saying poor maintenance could have led to the virus being expelled outside.

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Outbreak: David Biland, head of Merial, defended the firm's biosecurity record

A rival theory today linked the virus's spread with flooding. Department of Environment officials will examine whether a Pirbright worker could have poured away unsterilised vaccine, which could then have been washed up from the sewers by rising floodwaters.

An inspection of the diseased animals suggests they were infected between 18 and 22 July. The area around Derrick Pride's farm, where the outbreak was discovered, suffered flooding on 20 July. Scientists believe that although it was possible animals were infected through wind transmission it was unlikely as there was not enough of the virus present.

HSE officials are expected to confirm in the next 24 hours whether either of the Pirbright labs - a private US pharmaceutical firm and the Government's Institute for Animal Health - was responsible for the outbreak.

Mr Brown attempted to reassure farmers that everything possible was being done to stamp out the outbreak as he met local officials today.

"I understand that this is a difficult time for them and appreciate their anxiety and worry," the Prime Minister said. "We must do everything we can to control, contain and eradicate this disease."

The Government's emergency Cobra committee confirmed today that there were no new cases in the area. About 120 cows have been destroyed since the discovery of the outbreak on Friday, including 38 infected cattle.

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Merial: An American pharmaceutical company

Cutbacks at the research lab at the centre of the foot and mouth outbreak could be responsible for the spread of the disease, it has emerged.

Conservative leader David Cameron has raised questions about the funding of the government laboratory and said farmers had "every right to be angry if they were suffering as a result of mistakes by others".

According to a 2002 report by the government-funded Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Pirbright complex is in urgent need of investment. "Some of the laboratories and other areas of the Pirbright estate are not close to the standard expected of a modern biomedical facility and are well below that expected of a facility of such importance," the report said.

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.

"I think the Government will have some serious questions to answer about the report which came out in 2002 that said the facilities were shabby and not up to standard."

No access: A sign hangs on the gate of a public footpath near a Surrey farm which has been hit by foot and mouth disease