British lab, drug firm deny foot and mouth security breach

PIRBRIGHT, England (AFP) - A British government-run laboratory and a private pharmaceuticals company under investigation after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease denied yesterday there had been a bio-security breach.

The Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and Merial Animal Health Limited share a site in Pirbright, southeast England, which is about three miles (4.8 kilometres) from a farm where cattle tested positive for the virus.

The strain of the foot and mouth virus found on the farm near Pirbright is not normally found in animals and resembles one stored at the IAH and used to manufacture a vaccine batch at the Merial facility in recent weeks.

"On 16th July we know that manufacturing work was being done with the strain that has been identified as the source of the foot and mouth," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Professor Martin Shirley, from the IAH, said in statement that "the Institute for Animal Health operates under strict biosecurity procedures licensed by Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)."

"In addition, general checks of biosecurity operation... has shown no breaches of our procedures," he told reporters outside the facility, vowing full cooperation with the ministry which is tackling the crisis.

Merial Animal Health, owned by US drugmaker Merck and Co. Inc and France's Sanofi-Aventis SA, has suspended virus production as the foot and mouth strain was similar to a vaccine it had been making at Pirbright.

"This centre operates to the very highest international standards," said Merial managing director David Biland outside the laboratory.

"We insist on stringent adherence to processes and procedures for health, safety and environmental protection, quality control, quality assurance and regulatory compliance.

"We have been operating on this site for 15 years and during that time have produced hundreds of millions of vaccine doses. In all that time, we have never had a breach in our biosecurity.

"There has been, and continues to be, intense speculation regarding the possible causes of this outbreak.

"While we at Merial have complete confidence in the integrity of our biosecurity, and our initial investigation shows no breach in our procedures, it is really too early in this investigation for anyone to determine the cause of the outbreak."

The IAH is Britain's main centre for research on infectious diseases of livestock.

The institute's research focuses on diseases including foot and mouth, lumpy skin disease, rinderpest, African swine fever, swine vesicular disease, equine encephalosis and sheep and goat pox.

It also houses a reference lab which specialises in identifying strains of the diseases.

It also undertakes work for the European Union.

Global firm Merial produces pharmaceutical products and vaccines for livestock, pets and wildlife, incuding vaccines to protect cattle against foot and mouth.