Ministers Want Private Lab To Be Blamed For Leak
UK - Ministers are frustrated by the failure of the Health and Safety Executive to assert that a private laboratory at Pirbright, Surrey, was to blame for the leak which led to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
9 August 2007
2 minute read
A letter from the investigators points the finger of suspicion at the private labs of Merial, the United States-based company which runs a vaccine-manufacturing plant next door to the research laboratories of the world-renowned public Institute for Animal Health (IAH).
"The situation regarding Merial is less clear-cut, and I would advise that further work be done before any operations involving live pathogens are restarted."
Hilary Benn, by Dr Paul Logan
The letter was sent to the Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, by Dr Paul Logan, the lead investigator for the Health and Safety Executive, with its interim report on the outbreak. It was seen by ministers as a signal that the public laboratory would be cleared.
"My assessment is that there is no reason to prevent the Institute for Animal Health from operating providing that all the usual biosecurity protocols are followed rigorously," said Dr Logan.
"The situation regarding Merial is less clear-cut, and I would advise that further work be done before any operations involving live pathogens are restarted."
Dr Andrew King, former head of the department of molecular biology at IAH Pirbright, said yesterday that high standards of biosecurity were kept at the public laboratory.
"Leaving the building you have to change and have a shower," he said. "Staff are not permitted to have contact with animals, or visit premises where susceptible animals are kept for a period of three or five days. If they work in the labs where the testing work is done that's three days. If they are in animal houses then it is five days."
