Defra blamed for foot and mouth outbreak

A catalogue of bureaucratic failures and Government confusion led to a foot and mouth outbreak that could have devastated the British farming industry, an official inquiry has found.

The investigation into leaks from the Institute for Animal Health at Pirbright in Surrey found that "muddled and ineffective" management from Whitehall departments left the vital facility at risk of potentially disastrous accidents.

Animals on eight farms in the Surrey area were infected with foot-and- mouth in August and September last year, probably due to foot and mouth virus samples being used at Pirbright leaking from faulty pipework.

Iain Anderson, who reviewed the incident for the Government, today passed a damning verdict on the management of the site.

"This virus should never have got out. Everything was wrong around Pirbright, the regulatory system was poor, the risk management was poor," he said. Dr Anderson said the complex nature of Pirbright site and the way ministers had overseen it had contributed to the risks arising from its work.