Foot-and-mouth crisis due to laboratory leak?

As farmers in the UK brace for a possible repeat of the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that led to the slaughter of millions of animals, drove many of them into bankruptcy and cost the country an estimated $17 billion, authorities are saying the discovery of the virus on a farm near London may be due to a biosecurity failure from a nearby pharmaceutical laboratory run by a U.S. corporation.

The outbreak has resulted in a total ban on the export of "cloven-hooved" livestock products from the UK.

It is estimated that a three-month ban on lamb and beef exports alone would cost Britain more than $140 million, the London Telegraph reported.

Yesterday, authorities identified the viral strain found at a "beef finishing" facility as one not currently known to have been recently found in animals. Indeed, the infectious strain is most similar to one isolated in a 1967 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain and used since for the development of vaccines.

The identified strain is the same as one held at the only two laboratories in the UK licensed to handle the foot-and-mouth virus. Both laboratories – the Institute of Animal Health and Merial Animal Health Ltd, a pharmaceutical company – are located within three miles of the infected farm.

Merial, identified by the London Daily Mail as "an American company ... owned by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck," used the identical strain in a vaccine batch manufactured in July 2007. Merial shares research facilities with the publicly-funded IAH. IAH holds 5,000 strains of the virus.

Ironically, authorities believe that the potentially costly outbreak now being monitored may be traceable back to a "leak" from one of the two labs that are responsible for controlling the disease. Currently, scientists are looking for some airborne method that let the viral strain escape from the laboratory. Bio-terrorism has not yet been suggested as a factor in the infection of cattle.

The joint-laboratory facility is a high-security site holding samples of the most dangerous animal diseases known, including swine fever, sheep pox and bluetongue.

A series of quarantine zones have been put into place by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and "biosecurity arrangements" at both laboratories are under review, reported The Independent.

"It's a bit early in the day to say where the outbreak occurred. We are cooperating fully with the UK government to detect the source of the disease and will support DEFRA and its scientists to help bring this outbreak to as speedy and satisfactory a conclusion as possible," said a Merial spokesman.

Merial has ceased all work with the foot-and-mouth virus.

A lockdown on movement of livestock from a nearly 2-mile "protection zone" and 6-mile "surveillance zone" around the infected area is in place. Some animals have already been culled and various agricultural country fairs have canceled or will take place without livestock. Tourist attractions such as deer park have been closed to avoid people picking up the virus on their shoes and transporting it to other parts of the country.

The outbreak of 2001 required the slaughter of 6.5 to 10 million farm animals and put many farmers out of business. Some are only just now recovering.

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