Builders blamed for foot and mouth outbreak

Contractors working at the site of the recent foot-and-mouth outbreak may be responsible for spreading the disease, a report has suggested.

The official Health & Safety Executive report is published on Friday, but media reports indicate that building contractors may have caused the outbreak at the Pirbright site in Surrey, which belongs to the Institute for Animal Health and is used by pharmaceutical and vaccine company Merial Animal Health.

The report highlights a possible lapse in biosecurity at the site where an unidentified contractor was working on a £120m redevelopment project. 

HSE investigations found that, while staff at the laboratories were subject to routine biosecurity checks, no records were kept of the temporary staff working at the site. As a result, it is thought that the tyres of a vehicle belonging to a construction worker may have inadvertently carried the disease the four miles from the site to the infected farms. 

However, a report by the BBC contradicts other media stories, saying that breakages in a pipe running from Merial to a treatment plant is more likely to have been responsible.

News on the identity of the contractors working at Pirbright when we get it.