The finger of blame for the leak of the foot and mouth virus from a UK laboratory site is pointing at construction workers and a cracked pipe, according to media reports. An official report into the source of the outbreak is due out on Friday, but like the lab it seems to have leaked. Both the Guardian and the BBC are claiming drainage problems could have led to the virus’s escape and workmen on the site could then have carried it to the farm where the outbreak occurred.

Key here is the word ‘could’ – the Guardian notes that the exact cause of the outbreak may never be known. However the fact that the movements of 120 builders working at the site were “not properly monitored” has raised the Guardian’s suspicions that it’s all their fault. The BBC is more interested in the fact that the virus was found in a pipe running between the government lab and the biotech company that share the site in Surrey. Roots could have damaged the pipe after which flooding may have brought the virus to the surface.

Things aren’t going much better in the US, where Texas A&M University has been slammed for its prodceudures for dealing with “some of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases” (Houston Chronicle). A recent Nature article on the topic looked in detail at the issue of biosecurity (subscription required).