Key questions about foot and mouth - Telegraph
Extract:
"Are the Legionnaires' and foot and mouth outbreaks linked?
Only by the fact that both centre on the Government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH) at the Pirbright complex in Surrey and both investigations involve testing water samples that can harbour the conditions, thus raising questions about the site's drainage systems. The Legionnaires' investigation began in June and the victim had already recovered by the time the first case of foot and mouth was recorded.
How damaging is the Legionnaires' outbreak to Pirbright?
Very. The Government, which licenses and inspects the research site, has been forced to fend off severe criticism about conditions there and health and safety concerns are resurfacing. The Health and Safety Executive has already pointed to drainage systems at the private Merial laboratory - which shares the Pirbright complex - as being a possible cause for the foot and mouth outbreak. Further tests are ongoing. The Health Protection Agency also took water samples from the site, the results of which are not yet known, after they found small samples of the Legionella bacteria in the IAH building."
Showing posts with label foot and mouth disease outbreak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foot and mouth disease outbreak. Show all posts
Friday, 10 August 2007
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Bizarre and very unfortunate coincidence: a Pirbright worker has contracted Legionnaires' Disease
Pirbright worker contracts legionnaires' disease - Guardian
Extract:
"A worker at the government research facility in Pirbright that is at the centre of the foot and mouth outbreak has contracted legionnaires' disease, with officials saying the lab is a possible source of contamination, Guardian Unlimited can reveal.
The Health Protection Agency confirmed there had been a reported case of legionnaires' disease "with alleged links to the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright, in Surrey".
Environmental health inspectors took water samples from the facility today. At this stage, it is unclear whether the IAH employee contracted legionnaires' disease at the lab."
Extract:
"A worker at the government research facility in Pirbright that is at the centre of the foot and mouth outbreak has contracted legionnaires' disease, with officials saying the lab is a possible source of contamination, Guardian Unlimited can reveal.
The Health Protection Agency confirmed there had been a reported case of legionnaires' disease "with alleged links to the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright, in Surrey".
Environmental health inspectors took water samples from the facility today. At this stage, it is unclear whether the IAH employee contracted legionnaires' disease at the lab."
Could a scientist have scratched his nose and then unwittingly have triggered the foot and mouth outbreak?
A scratch of the nose and the virus is out - Telegraph
Extract:
"A scientist simply scratching his nose while working with the foot and mouth virus could have been the trigger for the present disease outbreak, a biosecurity expert said yesterday.
Human error is now thought to be the most likely cause of the spread of the disease as investigators try to pinpoint the source of the leak.
All attention is focused on Merial, the private company which shares the Pirbright laboratory complex with the Government-sponsored Institute for Animal Health.
It is feared that gloves or clothes used by workers in the facility may not have been decontaminated properly.
There are also concerns that the virus could have escaped into the laboratory's drainage system and then into storm water caused by flooding which employees inadvertently walked through.
The Health and Safety Executive has all but ruled out initial fears that a faulty filtering system propelled the virus into the atmosphere.
Keith Plum, who has worked as a chartered chemical engineer for 25 years and is involved in the design of biosecure facilities, said humans were a dangerous link in the chain."
Extract:
"A scientist simply scratching his nose while working with the foot and mouth virus could have been the trigger for the present disease outbreak, a biosecurity expert said yesterday.
Human error is now thought to be the most likely cause of the spread of the disease as investigators try to pinpoint the source of the leak.
All attention is focused on Merial, the private company which shares the Pirbright laboratory complex with the Government-sponsored Institute for Animal Health.
It is feared that gloves or clothes used by workers in the facility may not have been decontaminated properly.
There are also concerns that the virus could have escaped into the laboratory's drainage system and then into storm water caused by flooding which employees inadvertently walked through.
The Health and Safety Executive has all but ruled out initial fears that a faulty filtering system propelled the virus into the atmosphere.
Keith Plum, who has worked as a chartered chemical engineer for 25 years and is involved in the design of biosecure facilities, said humans were a dangerous link in the chain."
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Science research laboratory suspected in foot and mouth outbreak
Science lab suspected in foot and mouth outbreak - Observer
Extract:
"An accidental leak of an experimental vaccine from a private research site was being investigated urgently last night as the likely source of Britain's new foot and mouth disease outbreak. The news came as the government attempted to avert a full-scale crisis in farming and the tourism industry.
Movement of all livestock has been banned, exports to Europe stopped and country fairs cancelled to minimise the risk of the country suffering a disastrous rerun of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic which cost the nation £8.5bn.
Scientists made a breakthrough last night as they identified the strain of the virus as one which is not naturally occurring, but is a vaccine strain, and has never been seen before in Europe. This enabled investigators to link the outbreak to a company which lies less than three miles down the road from the source of the outbreak.
Merial Animal Health, a private pharmaceutical firm shares facilities with a government laboratory in Pirbright, and is commissioned by the European Union to formulate new vaccines for animal diseases. Both companies are expected to meet tight regulatory standards for biosecurity.
Investigators are now focusing on whether there was a lapse which meant that a batch of the vaccine, made last month, escaped the site. The company is believed to test its vaccines on animals, which may have been able to graze on the land. The virus may have been carried by the wind, or by people or vehicles down the road from the site to a rented field in the village of Normandy, near Guildford, where the outbreak happened.
By last night, dozens of vets and farm officials had been sent into a 10km 'surveillance' zone around the outbreak centre at Woolfords Farm to start disinfecting equipment and vehicles, as well as testing sheep, cattle and pigs from other farms. Hundreds more cattle, sheep and pigs in the zone face slaughter amid fears that they may have been infected by an airborne strain of the virus escaping from a nearby research centre.
The news that this may be an isolated outbreak, caused accidentally because of human error, will come as a relief to many farmers, because it makes it far less likely that the disease has already begun to spread around Britain. It also alleviates fears that the disease could somehow have made its way into the animal food chain, as happened in 2001 when it was found to be contained in pigswill.
The fact that it is a vaccine strain - called 01 BFS67 - also means that the infected animals are likely to have had a more mild form of the disease, and are much less likely to be contagious to other cattle.
At a press conference in London, the government's chief veterinary officer, Debby Reynolds, said one of her first acts was to review biosecurity at Pirbright."
Extract:
"An accidental leak of an experimental vaccine from a private research site was being investigated urgently last night as the likely source of Britain's new foot and mouth disease outbreak. The news came as the government attempted to avert a full-scale crisis in farming and the tourism industry.
Movement of all livestock has been banned, exports to Europe stopped and country fairs cancelled to minimise the risk of the country suffering a disastrous rerun of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic which cost the nation £8.5bn.
Scientists made a breakthrough last night as they identified the strain of the virus as one which is not naturally occurring, but is a vaccine strain, and has never been seen before in Europe. This enabled investigators to link the outbreak to a company which lies less than three miles down the road from the source of the outbreak.
Merial Animal Health, a private pharmaceutical firm shares facilities with a government laboratory in Pirbright, and is commissioned by the European Union to formulate new vaccines for animal diseases. Both companies are expected to meet tight regulatory standards for biosecurity.
Investigators are now focusing on whether there was a lapse which meant that a batch of the vaccine, made last month, escaped the site. The company is believed to test its vaccines on animals, which may have been able to graze on the land. The virus may have been carried by the wind, or by people or vehicles down the road from the site to a rented field in the village of Normandy, near Guildford, where the outbreak happened.
By last night, dozens of vets and farm officials had been sent into a 10km 'surveillance' zone around the outbreak centre at Woolfords Farm to start disinfecting equipment and vehicles, as well as testing sheep, cattle and pigs from other farms. Hundreds more cattle, sheep and pigs in the zone face slaughter amid fears that they may have been infected by an airborne strain of the virus escaping from a nearby research centre.
The news that this may be an isolated outbreak, caused accidentally because of human error, will come as a relief to many farmers, because it makes it far less likely that the disease has already begun to spread around Britain. It also alleviates fears that the disease could somehow have made its way into the animal food chain, as happened in 2001 when it was found to be contained in pigswill.
The fact that it is a vaccine strain - called 01 BFS67 - also means that the infected animals are likely to have had a more mild form of the disease, and are much less likely to be contagious to other cattle.
At a press conference in London, the government's chief veterinary officer, Debby Reynolds, said one of her first acts was to review biosecurity at Pirbright."
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