No biosecurity breaches, says IAH

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has revealed the strain of the virus found on an infected farm in Guildford, Surrey, was the same as one used at the nearby Pirbright laboratory.

Pirbright's Institute for Animal Health (IAH), an international diagnostic laboratory, said a check of records had found "limited use" in its lab of the strain identified in the cattle which were slaughtered once the disease was discovered.

The IAH shares the Pirbright site with pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health, which last month produced a batch of vaccines using the strain found in the infected animals.

Martin Shirley, director of the Government-funded Institute, said: "The IAH operates under strict bio-security procedures licensed by Defra.

"In addition to general checks on bio-security, operation of equipment, procedures and physical barriers etc., which have shown no breaches of our procedures, we have been able to check our records specifically for use of this strain. Our results have shown limited use within the lab within the past four weeks."

He said the Institute was continuing to co-operate with Defra in tracing the source of the infection, which was discovered on the farm near the village of Normandy on Friday.

Professor Shirley's announcement raised suspicions that the leak of foot-and-mouth disease could have come from Merial's laboratory.

But the pharmaceutical company on Sunday insisted it operated to the highest level of product quality and safety and adhered to the most stringent procedures at its production sites.

David Biland, Managing Director of Merial in the UK, said: "Merial will co-operate fully with the UK government to determine the source of the disease, and will fully support Defra scientists in bringing this outbreak to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion."