New foot and mouth scare at animal site

A "PROBABLE" new leak of foot and mouth disease has been discovered at the Merial Animal Health facility in Pirbright, Surrey, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said today.

The virus is thought to have escaped through a leaking valve last week, but inspectors have been assured the virus has not been released into the environment, Mr Benn said in a Commons written statement.

The Pirbright site, which also contains the Government's Institute for Animal Health, was the source of the foot and mouth outbreak in August.

Mr Benn said the licence to use live viruses for vaccine production was restored to Merial on November 6 after the summer outbreak.

New measures were put in place to improve the drainage at the site, with both heat and chemical treatment to destroy live viruses.

Mr Benn told MPs that on Monday some live cultures were discovered to be missing and a possibly faulty valve was identified.

He said operations were immediately stopped.