Inquiry attacks foot-and-mouth site

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The chairman of the probe, Iain Anderson, described the animal health laboratories at Pirbright, from where the disease escaped into local livestock, as a "shabby and dilapidated" place where regulation and risk management were poor.

Dr Anderson, who led the inquiry into the 2001 outbreak, said there needed to be a clarity of ownership and responsibility for the site, which is shared by the Institute of Animal Health (IAH) and private company Merial.

While the funding and governance of the IAH was "muddled and ineffective" and the facilities at Pirbright fell short of international standards, the science that came out of it was first class and needed to be supported, he urged.

Launching his review into the 2007 outbreak, he called for the Institute of Animal Health to be turned into a new National Institute of Infection Disease to give higher priority to the area of animal health.

Livestock on eight farms in the Surrey area were infected with foot-and-mouth in August and September last year, probably due to live FMD virus being used to develop a vaccine leaking from faulty pipework and spreading from the site.

Dr Anderson pointed the finger at those responsible for the situation at Pirbright: the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as the regulator, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and formerly the DTI, which are responsible for the site and funding, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) as the funding body, the Governing Body and the management at the Institute of Animal Health (IAH).

Dr Anderson said the 2007 foot-and-mouth outbreak should never have happened. He added the communications between Defra, IAH and Merial had been poor, and a secondary leak in November - which was contained - showed they were still inadequate.

But he said the leadership shown in 2007 - from the Prime Minister down - could not have been in sharper contrast to the "dithering" and failure to make crisp, quick, sharp-edged decisions over the 2001 outbreak.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said the recommendations in the report encouraged the Government to build on improvements already made, in strengthening communications, assessing and managing risk and exercising and testing contingency plans.