PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Georgia Vivisectors Cause Hoof and Mouth in the UK
by BBC Monday, Aug. 06, 2007 at 6:42 PM

Merial Ltd, a 'vaccine' manufacturer based in Georgia with fellow vivisectors Emory University and the CDC, has caused a ban on the export of British pig and cow flesh.

Georgia Vivisectors Create Hoof and Mouth in UK
by BBC Monday, Aug. 06, 2007 at 2:39 PM



Georgia vivisectors Create Hoof and Mouth In UK



Pirbright facility under scrutiny

A government institute and private firm occupy the Pirbright site
A research site in Surrey is the focus of the investigation into the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Health and safety inspectors are now checking it, and a review has also been launched into the biosecurity arrangements there.

The site in Pirbright - about four miles from the farm where the disease was found last week - is shared by two occupants.

One is a research facility by the government's Institute for Animal Health - the world reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth, which tests and catalogues strains of the disease from all over the world.

Its other occupant is the private pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health, an international animal healthcare firm which makes vaccines.


See layout of laboratory complexes at Pirbright site

Enlarge Image
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says the strain in the current outbreak is not one which has been recently found in animals, but is similar to those used in diagnostic laboratories and vaccine production.

The IAH said a check of records had found "limited use" of the virus in the past four weeks, while Merial last month produced a batch of vaccines using the strain.

But both labs have insisted that their biosecurity measures have not been breached.

Production suspended

The inspection team is looking at the Merial facility first because it contains much more of the infectious agent.

Merial Animal Health is a joint venture between two parent companies - Merck, a major US-based drug firm, and the French company, Sanofi-Aventis.


We have complete confidence in the integrity of our operation here
David Biland, Merial
Last year, it produced 100 million vials of animal vaccine in 15 manufacturing sites around the world.

Investigations continue to show no breach in biosecurity procedures at its Pirbright site, managing director David Biland says.

However, the firm has voluntarily suspended all production there.

Mr Biland said on Monday: "This site operates to the very highest international standards, and we have complete confidence in the integrity of our operation here.

"To date our investigations continue to show no breach in our procedures.

"However, it is still too early in this investigation for anyone to determine the cause of the outbreak."

Merial also produces a range of other pharmaceutical products for livestock, pets and wildlife. Last year, sales of its products topped £2.2 billion worldwide.

'Shabby'

A government review of the Institute for Animal Health five years ago found deficiencies in the standard of some of its laboratories.

The review, for the Biological and Biotechnology Research Council, said the institute "was not commensurate with what might be expected for work with infectious diseases".


Site redevelopment is well in progress at the IAH Pirbright laboratory
Professor Martin Shirley, IAH
And the review authors said they were concerned that some areas were "shabby".

Questions were also raised about the loss of key skills at the laboratory as senior personnel left and were not replaced.

The head of the laboratory, Professor Martin Shirley, said since the report good progress was being made on a £121m development programme which includes building new laboratories by 2011.

He added that planning to cope with senior staff leaving was being continually appraised.

He also confirmed that vaccine was present on the institute site - and there had been limited use of it within the past four weeks - but proper procedures had been followed.

Earlier this year, Prof Shirley told MPs he was trying to run a Rolls Royce service, but was being "funded at the level of a Ford Cortina".

On Monday, he said he stood by his comments but refused to comment any further.

Asked whether the virus may have come from anywhere other than Pirbright, Professor Shirley said the review was "a work in progress" and would look into possible sources.

'Serious questions'

As well as foot-and-mouth, the institute also focuses on diseases in cattle, sheep, horses and pigs, including lumpy skin disease, rinderpest, African swine fever, swine vesicular disease and equine encephalosis.

The institute's findings are supplied to Defra, the Department of Health and the Department for International Development.

The institute, which has two other sites - in Compton, Berkshire and the Neuropathogenesis Unit, in Edinburgh - also carries out work for the European Union.

Some scientists have criticised the government for not including the laboratories in the exclusion zone straight away - because they say it was obvious that they were a potential source of the infection.

Conservative leader David Cameron said: "If it turns out that the virus was released either from the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright or from the next-door lab at Merial - which, by the way, is inspected and licensed by the government - it will be astonishing news, because the organisations responsible for stopping things like foot-and-mouth will effectively be responsible for starting it.

"I think the government will have some serious questions to answer about the report which came out in 2002 that said the facilities were shabby and not up to standard."



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