Foot and Mouth 'leaked from broken lab pipe'

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Investigators believe the disease spread to farms in Surrey on the clothes and vehicles of construction workers brought in to improve conditions at the run- down Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright.

The cause of the foot and mouth outbreak remains a mystery

Experts from the Health and Safety Executive are believed to have detected traces of the virus in a pipe running between the Governmentfunded lab and the neighbouring vaccine factory owned by Merial Animal Health.

The report is expected to suggest that the pipe was damaged by tree roots.

Floods then carried the virus to the surface, where it spread to farms.

The report will raise concerns that the poor conditions at Pirbright were not detected by Government licensing inspectors.

Tory spokesman Peter Ainsworth said: "It is both shocking and unacceptable that this virus could have escaped from a Government-licensed laboratory at all."

Two reports are due tomorrow, one from the HSE and one from Professor Brian Spratt on biosecurity at Pirbright.

The foot and mouth outbreak led to hundreds of animals being slaughtered and cost farmers around £1million a day in lost business.

National Farmers' Union president Peter Kendall said last night that NFU lawyers would examine the reports to see if there was a case for claiming compensation.