Research facility is focus of inquiries

Suspicion over the cause of the foot-and-mouth outbreak focused on a private laboratory run by Merial Animal Health at Pirbright, three miles away from the farm where the disease was found.

Only about 150 yards separates the Pirbright laboratory run by the world-renowned Institute for Animal Health from the privately-owned vaccination production plant run by the US-based company, Merial.

The siting of the two laboratories on the same plot near Guildford was intended to allow government scientists to work closely with Merial on the production of a vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease, if the Government decided to go ahead with a vaccination programme.

Merial was formed by two pharmaceutical giants, Merck and Sanofi-Aventis, 10 years ago to enter the lucrative market for the production of vaccines and a range of other animal drugs.

Its laboratory was working on the same strain of the virus - O1 BFS67 - as the strain discovered in the cattle that were culled yesterday. The virus was being used to create vaccinations last month, increasing suspicions that an escape caused the outbreak.

The company claims to have high standards of bio- security. "The protection of health, safety and the environment (HSE) is one of our highest priorities," says the company's website. But the inquiry will focus on how the defences may have been breached. In the UK, Merial has some 150 staff working mainly in sales, marketing and manufacturing. Its headquarters are at Harlow in Essex, but the spotlight was on the work at its Pirbright labs.

The company has worldwide sales worth more than £1bn and employs 5,000 people. Its main laboratories are in France and its global executive chairman is Jose Barella.

Details about the Merial-run operation are sketchy, but a highly detailed report was carried out by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council into the IAH site following the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. Pirbright was originally a government TB quarantine station established to ensure that pedigree cattle being exported to southern Africa were free from TB. Work on foot-and-mouth disease began there in 1924.

It is under the responsibility of Hilary Benn's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but also advises the Department of Health and the Department for International Development. It has two other sites, but the Pirbright site is the only one in the UK with facilities to conduct research on infectious exotic diseases of large animals.

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