KEY POINTS:
LONDON - Suspicion over the cause of the foot and mouth outbreak focused on a private laboratory at Pirbright, 5km from the farm near Guildford, England, where the disease was found.
Only about 137 metres separates the Pirbright laboratory run by the world-renowned Institute for Animal Health from
the privately-owned vaccination production plant run by the US-based company, Merial.
The siting of the two laboratories on the same plot near Guildford was intended to allow government scientists to work closely with Merial on the production of a vaccine for foot and mouth disease, if the UK Government decided to go ahead with a vaccination programme.
Merial was formed by two pharmaceutical giants, Merck and Sanofi-Aventis ten years ago to enter the lucrative market for the production of vaccines as well as drugs for farm animals and pets.
Its laboratory was working on the same strain of the virus - O1 BFS67 - as the strain discovered in the cattle that were culled yesterday.
The virus was being used to create vaccinations last month, increasing suspicions that an escape caused the outbreak.
The company claims to have high standards of bio security.
"The protection of health, safety and the environment (HSE) is one of our highest priorities," says the company's website.
But the inquiry will focus on how the defences may have been breached.
In the UK, Merial has some 150 staff working mainly in sales, marketing and manufacturing.
Its headquarters are at Harlow in Essex , but the spotlight was on the work at its Pirbright labs.
The company, which operates in 150 countries, has worldwide sales worth more than A3;1 billion and employs 5000 people.
Its main laboratories are in France and its global executive chairman is Jose Barella.
Details about the Merial-run operation are sketchy, but a highly detailed report was carried out by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) into the IAH site following the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak.
Pirbright was originally a Government TB quarantine station established to ensure that pedigree cattle being exported to southern Africa were free from TB.
Work on Foot and Mouth Disease began there in 1924.
It is under the responsibility of Hilary Benn's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but also advises the Department of Health and the Department for International Development.
It has two other sites - in Compton, Berkshire and the Neuropathogenesis Unit, in Edinburgh .
But the Pirbright site is the only place in the UK with facilities to conduct research on highly infectious exotic diseases of large animals: FMD, Swine Vesicular Disease, and other vesicular diseases, Rinderpest, Bluetongue, African Horse Sickness and African Swine Fever.
The CCSRC inquiry report said bio-security at Pirbright was taken "extremely seriously", but it warned: "There is a strong need to ensure that a level of security and bio-security commensurate with the work conducted and the associated risk is maintained." It said bio-security for handling, diagnosis and containment of these exotic diseases was now greater because of the threats of "agricultural bio-terrorism".
It also criticised successive governments for failing to ensure more investment in the Pirbright site.
Many countries such as Australia , Canada , Switzerland and Spain , have recognised the need for high security facilities for exotic diseases research and have commissioned new facilities in recent years.
In the UK the major burden for infrastructure investment in Pirbright is borne by BBSRC.
Despite capital expenditure of around A3;34 million at IAH over the last 10 years, with about 15 million allocated to development at Pirbright, there remains much still to do.
- INDEPENDENT
