Funding cuts at UK's leading university leaves students doing the work of senior staff

The Institute for Animal Health (IAH), which is the main UK centre for research on infectious diseases of livestock and specialises in the study of foot-and-mouth, has a laboratory at Pirbright – close to the virus-hit farm in the village of Wanborough.

Investigators are examining its biosecurity procedures to determine whether the virus could have been accidentally released by a scientist and then carried on the wind to the infected herd.

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In a damning report published in November last year, the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology said that cuts in the laboratory's funding from Defra were having a damaging effect on its efficiency and professionalism.

The committee, which is chaired by Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis, said the IAH was suffering a "major problem" with "the loss of key staff and key skills".

It said a "significant cut in real terms" in the amount of funding for work on exotic viruses, such as foot-and-mouth, "has meant that key areas of work have to be undertaken by PhD students at the very beginning of their research training – and not by experienced technical staff".

It added that the funding it received for foot-and-mouth research was not sufficient to meet its costs.

A second laboratory which holds stores of foot-and-mouth vaccines is just 150 yards away.

This laboratory, run by Merial, an animal health company, is also a focus of the Defra investigation.

Merial, which is owned by the drugs giants Merck and Aventis and employs more than 5,000 people in 150 countries, uses the laboratory to produce foot-and-mouth vaccines on a commercial basis.

The institute receives Government funding from Defra and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Merial, based in Georgia, USA, is a hugely profitable company with sales in the first six months of this year of £700million.

The IAH, which is headed by Martin Shirley, an expert in the parasitic diseases of poultry, is a non-governmental organisation. It has two other sites, at Compton in Berkshire and in Edinburgh.

It describes its mission as delivering "high-quality applied science into infectious animal disease to . . . safeguard the supply and safety of food and protect public health and the environment".

It adds: "The institute generates information and advice that is crucial for supporting Government in the development of animal health and welfare policies."

In their report, the MPs said that work was due to start this summer on a huge expansion of the institute to create a £121million new Centre for Veterinary Virology.

The report warned that the new laboratory would face a projected funding gap of £8.2million a year.