This summer’s outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which has cost the country almost £50 million, could have been avoided if £50,000 had been spent on repairs to a leaking pipe.

It has also emerged that officials at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs knew about the poor state of the drains at the Pirbright research laboratory site in Surrey four years ago.

But wrangling between the government-funded Institute of Animal Health (IAH) and the pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health, which share the site, over how much each should pay towards repairs reached a deadlock and the work was not carried out. The issue is expected to be decided in the High Court.

Such a lax approach at a scientific establishment handling live viruses that could devastate livestock farming was revealed yesterday, after the publication of two official inquiries into the cause of the outbreak.

Pipe repair row led to foot-and-mouth

Foot-and-mouth outbreak which cost the UK almost £50m could have been avoided if £50,000 had been spent on repairs

Background

• Outbreak under control, experts tell Brown

• Deadly secrets of the pathogen labs

• Chief vet rules out vaccination against FMD

• Lawyers advise on possible compensation claim

• ‘My old bull, Ned, collapsed before my eyes’

A culture of complacency at the IAH and scant regard for biosecurity measures emerge from the reports. As well as the leaky drains there was no system for disinfecting vehicles that could have picked up viruses at the plant. Although terrorism and sabotage have been ruled out as a cause of this outbreak, the inquiries suggest that it would be easy for an intruder to get into the high-risk laboratories.

The failings are considered to be so serious that an urgent system of inspections will now take place at each of the 432 British laboratories that deal with deadly and highly infectious human and animal disease pathogens. Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Secretary, made clear however that no official would face disciplinary action.

Mr Benn made it clear that there were no excuses for the escape from the Pirbright facility. He said: “It should not be possible for a live virus to escape from a secure laboratory. It should not have happened even under these extraordinary circumstances and must not happen again.”

Although the precise cause of the outbreak may never be established precisely the inquiries point to a cracked effluent pipe, tree roots and unsealed manhole covers. It is thought that the escaped virus was most likely from Merial, although not because of a breach in biosecurity, which leaked and contaminated surrounding soil. The infected mud was picked up on the tyres of contractors’ lorries that were driven along a lane near to the Normandy farm where the disease was identified 35 days ago.

Brian Spratt, an expert in infectious diseases at Imperial College, London, who headed an independent inquiry, said: “It is very clear that the drainage system was defective, poorly maintained, rarely inspected and could leak.”

The last Defra inspection took place in March but the drainage problem was not regarded as a problem to the work on a foot-and-mouth vaccine.

Professor Spratt highlighted a conflict of interest in Defra’s role as regulator, licenser, inspector and leading funder for research at the IAH. His report said: “The poor state of the IAH laboratories and the effluent pipes indicates that adequate funding has not been available to ensure the highest standards of safety for the work on foot-and-mouth disease.”

Geoffrey Podger, chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive, which led the investigation into the cause, highlighted “long-term damage” of the drainage system, inadequate controls on movement of people and vehicles and poor record-keeping. He said: “It was absolutely essential that the pipework was fully contained. It was not.”

The foot-and-mouth outbreak was declared over yesterday and at noon today restrictions in the surveillance zone near the infected farms and on animal movements are to be lifted.

The earliest date for trade to resume with countries outside of the EU will be November 7.

Explore UK News

• Science News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Postman Pat moved to a high-tech sorting office
• Saatchi’s old favourites
• New teaching style gives pupils wake-up call