Foot-and-mouth reports 'studied'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/6972864.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A report into whether a nearby lab was the source of the recent foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Surrey has been submitted to the government.

The results of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation are to be published by the government next week.

A second report into biosecurity at the Pirbright lab, from Imperial College London, is expected later in the day.

A Department of Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesman said both would be carefully studied before publication.

'Strong possibility'

Experts were sent to the Pirbright site after it emerged the strain of disease being studied there was the same as the one that infected cattle at a farm in Guildford in Surrey at the beginning of August.

An initial report by the HSE found a "strong possibility" Pirbright was the source.

It also said there was a "real possibility" human movement had spread the disease.

The Pirbright lab complex is shared by the Institute for Animal Health (IAH), an international diagnostic laboratory, and the private pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health.

The interim report isolated neither as the source.

Restrictions loosened

A Defra spokesman said: "Defra has received the report from the Health and Safety Executive into the recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Surrey.

"We expect to receive Professor Brian Spratt's report by the end of today.

"Both reports will be carefully considered. We expect to publish them next week alongside a statement of the further actions that Government will be taking in the light of the reports."

Strict restrictions on animal movements were enforced after the outbreak.

But on Thursday Defra announced that livestock markets for cattle, sheep and pigs would be allowed to resume from Monday.