Builders to face blame for foot-and-mouth outbreak

Two investigations, ordered by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, have reportedly failed to identify the cause of the leak from the Pirbright complex in Surrey.

However, one possibility is that one of 120 construction workers, carrying out a £120million upgrade at the centre, may have inadvertently transmitted the virus on vehicle tyres to nearby farms.

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Virus traces were found in a pipe running from the Merial pharmaceutical firm to a treatment plant operated by a government-run lab on the same complex, according to the BBC.

The pipe may have been damaged by tree roots before flooding pushed the traces to the surface.

Daily checks are carried out on staff at the complex, which is shared by the Government's-Institute for Animal-Health and US pharmaceutical firm Merial, to ensure they do not carry diseases outside. However, no records are believed to have been kept on testing of construction workers.

The foot and mouth outbreakin Surrey a month ago led to 600 cattle being slaughtered and is estimated to have cost farmers £2million a day.

The reports are not expected to rule out the possibility that the virus leak was caused by the drainage system being hit by flooding.

The BBC reported that the official inquiry was expected to say the pipe leading between the IAH lab and one owned by a pharmaceutical company in Pirbright had traces of the virus in it.

It was further claimed the pipe may have been damaged by tree roots and then floodwater on July 20 brought traces of the virus to the surface, which could have been spread to nearby farms by workmen.

Radio 4's The World at One programme also said arguments between the Government and Merial Animal Health were continuing over who was responsible for maintenance of the pipe.

Michael Jack, Tory chairman of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said: "I am very concerned that there appears to have been a lapse of biosecurity, especially after the last major outbreak of foot and mouth - the Government put enormous emphasis, particularly as far as farmers were concerned, on upgrading their biosecurity.

"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."

Mr Jack, a former agriculture minister, told the World at One: "This report shows a disturbing perhaps lapse in investigating all the ways in which material went in and out of this particular site."

His committee would quiz Environment Secretary Hilary Benn about the reports when the Commons returns after the summer recess, he added.

Tim Russ, of law firm Clarke Willmott, who is representing some firms affected by the outbreak, told the BBC:

"If it is, as you say, a broken pipe, then I think we can look at whose responsibility it was to look after this pipe, which would depend on who the landowner is.

"I think it is going to be very difficult for somebody who releases a dangerous virus into the atmosphere to say they are not in breach of duty, the more difficult issue is who they owe the duty to and what class of people that is."

He added: "What I will be looking for is clear evidence that there was a breach of a duty of care which I think was clearly owed, not to release this dangerous virus into the atmosphere."