Pirbright, England – Biosafety experts scoured a high-security animal laboratory Sunday in rural England to determine how a strain of the foot-and- mouth virus may have escaped from a facility dedicated to eliminating the devastating animal disease.
Officials increasingly suspect that the lab – home to a government research center and a company that makes foot-and- mouth vaccine – was the source of the outbreak on a nearby farm. That has raised hopes that the disease was not spread by other animals and could be contained.
The particular strain of the highly infectious disease was identical to one used at the lab and had not recently been seen in live animals, the agriculture department said.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was hopeful that a potentially disastrous livestock epidemic could be averted but added that the government has not ruled out other sources.
Britain has banned exports of livestock, meat and milk and halted the movement of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs nationwide to prevent the spread of the virus. The United States and Japan immediately banned British pigs and pork products.
The case is the first in Britain since 2001, when carcasses of 7 million culled cattle were burned on huge pyres that dotted the countryside. The farming industry was devastated, and rural tourism was badly hit.
The affected farm is about 4 miles away from the lab, which is shared by the government’s Institute for Animal Health and a private pharmaceutical company, Merial Animal Health, the British arm of Duluth, Ga.-based Merial Ltd.
The agriculture department ordered a 6-mile protection zone set up around the lab and the farm. It also began an urgent review of biosecurity measures at the lab. Experts from the Health and Safety Executive were inspecting the Merial and government facilities.
Cattle on the farm outside Wanborough, 30 miles southwest of London, tested positive for the disease, which affects cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, pigs and goats. All livestock at the farm were slaughtered Saturday, as well as animals at a second farm nearby.
The disease, which does not affect humans, can be transmitted though contact between animals or by wind.
Martin Shirley, director of the Institute for Animal Health, said an investigation had found no breaches of biosecurity procedures.
Microbiologist Hugh Pennington told the British Broadcasting Corp. it was possible the virus had spread from the laboratory on the wind.
“It may not be a huge security breach,” Pennington said. “It may just be one incident which let a puff of virus out.”
