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Foot and mouth report will
blame Government
Laura Donnelly
London
Telegraph
Sunday October 07, 2007
The Government will be blamed for failures at its
research laboratories that caused this summer's foot and mouth
outbreak.
An inquiry is expected to criticise heavily the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for allowing the disease
to escape from the laboratory at Pirbright, in Surrey.
It will also single out the Government's agency for scientific
research for the terrible state of disrepair at the laboratory
linked to the outbreak, which led to the infection and slaughter
of hundreds of cattle in the area.
The inquiry, which will report in December, is headed by Dr Ian
Anderson who investigated the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic.
Dr Anderson has been asked to investigate whether the Government's
response to this summer's crisis showed lessons had been learned
from the last outbreak.
(Article continues below)
His final report is likely to be positive about the measures
taken to control the spread of the virus. But it is expected to
be deeply critical of the Government for its failure to prevent
the outbreak, which was linked to its laboratory in Pirbright
which tests foot and mouth strains.
Dr Anderson's report is expected to lay blame on the Government
for failing to fund improvements to the site, which was described
as "shabby" and "unsatisfactory" by parliamentary
committees earlier this year.
It is expected to accuse the bodies involved in its management
and regulation — Defra, the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Institute of Animal
Health (IAH) — of failing to agree clear responsibility
for the running of the site.
BBSRC, which funds and owns the site, is to come in for particular
criticism.
Last month, Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, admitted
that a long-standing squabble over who should pay for the repairs
to leaky drains at the IAH facility at Pirbright contributed to
the release of the disease and its subsequent spread through local
cattle herds. The IAH and Merial, a private vaccine company that
leases a building on the site, have yet to agree who was responsible
for maintaining the drains.
Mr Benn made his comments after an instant review of biosafety
at Pirbright expressed concern over the "old, poorly maintained
and defective" drainage system.
The state of the IAH lab indicated that not enough money was
spent on securing the safety of the facility, which is more than
50 years old, the report by Prof Brian Spratt warned. A parallel
report by the Health and Safety Executive found five breaches
of its rules.
The current inquiry by Dr Anderson will examine whether lessons
were learned from the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, and what lessons
can be learned from the latest outbreak. A separate review is
examining Defra's role as a regulator, inspector and customer
of research into animal pathogens, while a third investigation
is examining the way the IAH was run.
The National Farmers Union said the crisis, combined with the
latest outbreak of bluetongue disease, which has infected 25 cattle
in East Anglia, had already cost the livestock industry at least
£135million.
A spokesman for Defra would not comment on speculation about
the contents of the review, which only began last week. He said
the review's remit was to look at the handling of the outbreak,
not the cause of it, though the Government was always keen to
learn lessons with regard to animal disease outbreaks.
Last Wednesday, the European Union agreed to partially lift the
export ban on meat from the UK as from Friday.
The NFU said the decision was a relief for farmers in the West,
North and Wales, but warned that the decision to proscribe the
export of meat from an area which extends 120 miles beyond the
foot and mouth surveillance zone in Surrey left "a large
part of central and southern England out in the cold".
Farmers in the Midlands, East Anglia and parts of the West Country
remain covered by the ban, along with those across the South East.
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