September 7, 2007

UK health agency says FMD found in broken pipe near laboratory

British authorities have discovered the presence of foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD) virus in a broken pipe on a laboratory site nearby.

The BBC news website says the British Health and Safety Executive found lapses in bio-security at the site.

FMD eruptions in July have caused transport and trade ban for several weeks. Though the disease was found in cattle, more than two hundred pigs have to be slaughtered at one of the infected areas. 

The site claims that virus traces have been found in a pipe running from Merial Animal Health to a treatment plant operated by a government-run laboratory on the same complex.

It is believed that the pipe could have been damaged by tree roots due to flooding which pushed the virus to the surface, the website says.

It remains uncertain how FMD virus found its way on to the meadows a few kilometres away. The investigators said that contractors used a country road next to the farmland where the first outbreak happened.