LONDON - A preliminary report by government inspectors into an outbreak of foot and mouth disease said on Tuesday there was a "strong probability" that the strain of virus originated from two nearby research laboratories.
The report, by the government's Health and Safety Executive, did not point thefinger at either of the animal health labs at the site but said they were probably the source.
One laboratory is run by the government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and the other is privately owned by Merial Animal Health Ltd, a major U.S.-French firm.
"Subject to the ongoing work detailed above, the indications are that there is a strong probability that the (foot and mouth disease virus) strain involved in the farm outbreak originated from the IAH or the Merial sites," the report said.
The inspectors said there was a "real possibility" that human movement was responsible for releasing the virus, although it did not go into detail.
Notably, the report also said there was a "negligible" likelihood that the virus, a highly contagious pathogen that is frequently dispersed on the wind, had been dispersed from the research laboratories on the air.
Instead, it said that "waterborne release onto the site (of infection) remains a possibility."
At least 120 cattle have so far been slaughtered as a result of the disease outbreak, which was first confirmed in a herd of cattle on Friday.
Merial, jointly owned by US drugmaker Merck & Co. and France's Sanofi-Aventis SA, said it was assessing the information in the report.
