A BUNDLE of dusty maps alerted Steve Kendrew to the risks being run by the government’s foot and mouth laboratories at Pirbright, Surrey.

The documents, some 50 years old, showed the drains beneath the Institute for Animal Health’s (IAH) laboratories, which were carrying for disinfection dangerous waste including the viruses responsible for animal diseases such as foot and mouth, bluetongue, swine fever and African horse sickness.

Some of the pipes were made of tough modern plastic but most were cast iron and clay - all joined with ageing pumps, valves and pipe junctions. “It was unbelievable,” said Kendrew. “Some of the maps were missing so we didn’t even know where they all were. Few of them had been inspected or pressure tested for leaks in years. It was a disaster waiting to happen.”

That was 15 months ago, long before the Pirbright complex was identified as the source of the current outbreak of foot and mouth disease that has cost Britain an estimated £300m.

Within weeks of his arrival, Kendrew was warning managers that the antiquated system threatened to cause an “international disaster” through a potentially dangerous release of effluent. His warnings were repeated in e-mails, seen by The Sunday Times, which make it clear the drains were just one element of a backlog in repairs, many of which also compromised biosecurity. He said: “The whole site was a shambles but management refused to listen.”

Last month the accuracy of his predictions was confirmed by Brian Spratt, whose report into the foot and mouth outbreak blamed leakage from the drains. He said the virus probably escaped when contractors removed soil infected by the leaks, spreading it into nearby fields.

Kendrew, 45, a qualified engineer with 20 years of experience running corporate buildings, had been hired via an agency to oversee construction and maintenance at the IAH’s sites in Pirbright, and Compton, Berkshire.

He told managers from the IAH and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), which channels government money to the IAH, about drainage problems in a meeting in June last year.

He repeated these warnings throughout the rest of 2006. Last November he sent an e-mail to Chris Barlow, head of estates at the IAH. The e-mails were also seen by Martin Shirley, its director. Kendrew said he raised the same problems with senior Defra officials by telephone.

Spratt’s report said the virus in the outbreak most likely came from Merial, a company making vaccines on a site next to the Pirbright laboratory. Merial had been pumping waste, including billions of live viruses, into the IAH drains. Kendrew had warned IAH managers that the Merial waste risked overwhelming the system, causing it to leak.

A Merial spokesman said: “We reject any inference that Merial believed there was a potential breach of biosecurity.”

Defra said a review of procedures was being undertaken, while the BBSRC and IAH said genuine concerns raised by Kendrew had been dealt with.

Kendrew’s work with the IAH ended abruptly in June. He said: “This has cost me dearly. My career is blighted . . . but staying silent would have been a crime by omission.”

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