13 August 2007
This has been an anxious 10 days for farmers and all who depend on or love the countryside. The foot and mouth outbreak at Pirbright in Surrey has horrified the livestock community.

For the apparent source of the disease is at the heart of the Government's own facilities for testing for animal health diseases and vaccine production.

The very highest standards of bio-security are to be demanded from such a place. Farmers are rightly expected to comply with ever increasing bio-security regulations to prevent disease and ensure traceability if required.

For the Government to be incapable of ensuring equivalent or stricter standards in its own laboratories is unforgivable.

In other countries risks are better managed. The equivalent laboratory in the United States is located on an island isolated from animals or human inhabitants.

We still need to know how the virus was carried on to nearby farms.

A parliamentary committee criticised the lack of modernisation of the facilities at Pirbright less than a year ago. Was bio-security compromised by Government budget cuts?

The Merial laboratory started making a large batch of the 1967 virus on the site two weeks before the outbreak. This is a commercial company which makes vaccines to order. Who ordered the vaccine and why?

What other viruses are worked on at Pirbright and what risk is there of an outbreak of another disease?

If Government-licensed premises are responsible, will ministers provide full compensation to all those affected?

Those farmers who have witnessed their livestock being slaughtered deserve answers soon.