Foot-and-mouth 'wasn't contained'

By Pallab Ghosh
Science Correspondent, BBC News

Controls were in operation during the outbreaks

Environment department Defra failed to contain the first foot-and-mouth outbreak this summer despite declaring the nation virus-free, a study says.

The first outbreak in August was traced to the Pirbright lab site in Surrey.

A second outbreak - 11 miles (17km) away in September - was thought to have been caused by separate contamination.

But the Institute of Animal Health research concluded the two outbreaks came from the same source, suggesting the first was not fully eradicated.

Transmission sequence

Its scientists studied the genetic fingerprints of the virus recovered from the different infected premises in the 2007 outbreak.

After analysing the evidence they have been able to determine the probable sequence of transmission between infected premises.

An independent expert peer review process has accepted the study's conclusions that the second phase of the outbreak originated from the first phase and was not from a separate release.

It suggests that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) failed to identify premises that had continued to be infected throughout August.

Defra, however, says it was not a failure on their part, "This infected premises was located outside of the original 10km surveillance zone and therefore could not have been picked up by the extensive surveillance and sampling we carried out according to internationally recognised standards."

The second outbreak in September came as a surprise and embarrassment to the government.

It had taken credit for successfully containing the virus leak from the Pirbright site in Surrey, which houses both the IAH's Pirbright Laboratory and the vaccine company Merial.

But according to the IAH investigation, the virus was somehow transported 17km from the first infected premises in Normandy to another farm in the Virginia Water area.

Conflict of interest

This raises the possibility that Defra supervised disinfection of the original Pirbright premises and disposal of infected animals, but did not eradicate the virus.

The research was made public by the scientists to refute newspaper claims that there was a second breach in biosecurity at the site.

The IAH scientists' decision to publish their findings came as the government announced Defra was to be stripped of its role as regulator for laboratories which handle animal viruses.

The decision was triggered after a review found there was a conflict of interest in Defra being both a major recipient of research carried out at Pirbright, and the site's regulator.