Foot and Mouth breaks out again - September 14, 2007
Foot and Mouth disease has again been detected in the UK. The government hoped it had contained an outbreak from a laboratory earlier this year but new cases were detected this week at a farm some miles from the original source. Chief vet Debby Reynolds said the virus strain in the new cases was “generally” the same as that from the laboratory outbreak (BBC) meaning it is not likely to be a separate incident. Reynolds had said recently she was “satisfied that foot-and-mouth has been eradicated” in the UK (NY Times).
Last week two reports detailed biosafety problems at the scene of the outbreak – which is shared by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’s Institute of Animal Health and private company Merial. Farmers Guardian said they “lifted the lid on the series of astonishing biosecurity lapses that lay behind last month’s outbreak”. Arguments over funding appear to have delayed maintenance work at the labs. The government has pledged to review its institute but some are saying a long, hard look at the department is long overdue.
“Defra underfunded the IAH against the government’s own agreed policy, in the face of [chief science advisor David] King’s advice and knowing that its facilities offered only second-rate containment. It didn’t do too little, too late. It did nothing,” says science policy paper Research Fortnight (subscription required).
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