Posted on 08/07/2007 9:20:07 PM PDT by Fred Nerks
A major lapse in security at a Government research laboratory complex was identified last night by an official report as the most likely cause of the foot and mouth outbreak.
Video and images at link.
A Health and Safety Executive inquiry said there was a "strong possibility" that the virus came from the Government-licensed Pirbright complex in Surrey, which is just three miles from the two farms that have been contaminated.
It is likely workers at the site - shared between the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and its commercial partner, Merial Animal Health - were to blame for spreading the disease, the report said.
In a further twist, the HSE said that sabotage at the labs could not be ruled out. Ironically, the Government has just asked Merial to produce 300,000 foot and mouth vaccines.
Politicians and farmers' leaders were last night asking how such a fundamental breach could occur at a high-security laboratory complex where highly contagious diseases were tested.
Peter Ainsworth, the Conservative environment spokesman, said: "This is truly shocking. It will be very bad news for the farming community, who do so much to make sure they abide by the law.
"This report is devastating in its conclusions and it will be deeply troubling news for farmers, who are always being pushed to improve their bio-security. Yet the labs that are meant to be preventing the disease turn out to be the source of the outbreak."
Farmers were furious that their livelihoods were possibly being put at risk by Government scientists.
Peter Kendall, the president of the National Farmers' Union, said: "This is soul-destroying for those farmers and their families within that area. If this has come from a government agency or a private company those people will be hurt, angry and upset."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
More likely incompetence, I think, but more sinister possibilities must of course be investigated.
Note to investigators....make a similar security check at the nuclear R&D labs.
28 days later?
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said a result of the investigation of the Pirbright labs is expected within 48 hours. The Merial site will be examined first because it has used the virus more extensively over the past month.
However, Prof Neil Ferguson, an expert from Imperial College London, cautioned that the source of the outbreak may never be uncovered.
LOL! It would be the ultimate irony that the same person who let loose Foot and Mouth Disease would be one who practiced foot washings.
Did you see the sequel? Even scarier IMO. Loved it.
ping
I guess the good news is, it was detected quickly.
sort of a sidebar:
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/bse/
Thanks Fred.
as a former lab rat, I can tell you these people, especially in biological areas, don’t earn squat, they are treated like shit, they get no respect.
Much is demanded of them, but little is given to support what is demanded.
Managing culture collections is still the responsibility of the lowest of the low in the lab.
Sinister motives? Maybe
Pissed off and looking for revenge? Much more likely.
As an aside, as a biology major you spend twice as much time (labs plus class time) to earn the same credit points as some half wit communications major. When a biology major hits the “real world” he will typically make a half or a third of what others make. That can be enraging and unfair. Just an opinion.
Tough! No one forces you to be a bio major, and anyone who does without finding out what salaries are is not too bright. I was a bio major, too, and later got a grad degree in computer sci so I could make money.
What we don’t need in level 4 labs are bench techs with chips on their shoulders.
If a lab worker did contaminate the countryside on purpose, I hope s/he is strung up from a lamppost. Those farmers don’t need to be put through hell again because of some twit’s ego.
You need to think about getting into another line of work. Pronto.
While the sudden outbreak of foot and mouth logicaly came from a government lab, it still does not explain how it spread so efficiently from agricultural center to agricultural center skipping over small farming districts.
It takes intelegence to do that, just like it takes intelegence to steal bio weaponry from a lab.
But then, I was talking about the last outbreak across Brittany, I did not hear of this one!
http://www.hse.gov.uk/news/archive/07aug/pirbright.htm
Initial report on potential breaches to biosecurity at the Pirbright site, 2007
Potential for release from the site by human movements
There are various potential routes for accidental or deliberate transfer of material from the site. We have investigated site management systems and records and spoken to a number of employees. As a result we are pursuing lines of inquiry.
Release by human movement must also be considered a real possibility. Further investigation of the above issues is required and is being urgently pursued.
Luckily there are NO terrorist doctors in England
who might have done this.
I can’t recall the name of the lab that was broken into, and the BSE stolen, in January of the year they had the big outbreak in England.
I remember that though.
It was right before that lab got caught switching samples for a false BSE reading:
http://www.breederville.com/auction/forumtopic.php?topic=18&boardid=1
Two veterinarians face charges for BSE test sample switch
Two slaughterhouse veterinarians in Pietarsaari are on trial for deliberately using the wrong samples for a BSE, or Mad Cow Disease, test. The charges are related to events at the Snellman slaughterhouse in this west coast city.
According to the indictment, the veterinarians, who worked as inspectors for the National Food Agency, had switched damaged samples from animals undergoing tests for ones that had been taken from younger animals and frozen.
It was feared that the National Veterinary and Food Research Institute of Finland (EELA) would have rejected the damaged samples. If this had happened, the carcass that the bad sample was taken from, and three others, might have been destroyed.
One of the two veterinarians admitted to having switched two damaged samples for ones that had been taken from other animals as part of training for laboratory assistants.
The practice samples were then stored in the slaughterhouse’s freezer, and some of them were used when more recent samples were not seen to be good enough.
Three witnesses were heard at the trial in Pietarsaari: an inspector veterinarian who had informed authorities about the sample-switching, a veterinary student, and the laboratory assistant who had taken samples. All three confirmed the practice of sample switching.
The laboratory assistant refused to switch samples, but went on sick leave. The inspector veterinarian reported the practice, and was sacked. The student felt that the practice was wrong, but obeyed the orders.
Finland’s only case of BSE was found on a cattle farm in Kärsämäki in December 2001. Since then all cattle over 30 months of age that are slaughtered for meat have been inspected for BSE.
Each year EELA checks 130,000 samples for signs of the feared disease.
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