The Merial lab has just has its licence for using live viruses for vaccine production renewed
by Valerie Elliott
New questions about the competence of the Government were being raised by opposition parties today after another leak of live foot-and-mouth virus from the source of the summer outbreak.
There is particular irritation that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs took two days to disclose the discovery of a new leak and then for Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Secretary, to slip out the information by written answer.
Peter Ainsworth, the Conservative rural affairs spokesman, has written an urgent letter to Mr Benn asking a series of questions about the incident.
He is angry that Mr Benn failed to come to the Commons to face questions about the matter and that instead he chose to release a written statement to Parliament after the deadline passed for Opposition parties to request an emergency oral statement from ministers.
The virus itself has not leaked into the environment and so a new foot-and-mouth disease outbreak is unlikely. But farmers and MPs are concerned about the inspection regime at Pirbright and some are questioning whether the facility is fit to handle live virus.
Derrick Pride, from Elstead, Surrey, who lost his 64 cattle in the August outbreak, was extremely concerned by the news. He is attempting to rebuild his business and restock his farm, and his farm shop is already open.
He said: “If it has got out, it’s very worrying. They said that they had carried out adequate bio-security checks. Obviously if the virus is still getting out they haven’t.”
The leak happened only two weeks after the Government renewed the licence of Merial Animal Health, the pharmaceutical company at Pirbright, to use live viruses for vaccine production, on November 6.
The National Farmers’ Union said in a statement today: “It is extremely concerning that part of the system at Merial has failed. However, we have been reassured by Defra that the secondary decontamination systems have worked effectively and that no live virus escaped into the environment.”
The union is pressing ahead with a claim for compensation against the Government for the losses suffered by farmers in the August outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey and papers have been served.
Urgent maintenance work on faulty effluent pipes and manhole covers at Pirbright had been completed and a new facility was also in place to heat treat waste from virus production. The ground above the drains is also now a controlled area and anyone entering it has to follow strict cleansing and disinfecting regimes.
Effluent from the plant also now enters a chemical treatment facility that deactivates any virus, and this equipment is monitored and tested daily.
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