Reports examining whether the recent foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in Surrey could have stemmed from a nearby laboratory have been handed in to the Government.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it expected to publish a report by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the lab at Pirbright and a review of biosecurity arrangements led by Professor Brian Spratt of Imperial College, London University, next week.
Experts were sent into the Pirbright site after it emerged the strain of foot-and-mouth disease found in infected cattle on two farms near Guildford, Surrey, was the same as one used at the labs there.
Pirbright is shared by the Government-funded Institute for Animal Health (IAH), an international diagnostic laboratory, and pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health.
In an interim report by the HSE published around three weeks ago, experts said there was a "strong possibility" the Pirbright facility was the source of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
The report said there was a "real possibility" the disease was spread by human movement, but the chances that it was caused by flooding or aerial transmission were "negligible".
It did not narrow down the likely source further to either Merial Animal Health or the Institute of Animal Health (IAH).
The report confirmed the strain found at the first farm was being worked on at both IAH and Merial between July 14 and 25.
A Defra spokesman said: "Defra has received the report from the Health and Safety Executive into the recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Surrey. We expect to receive Professor Brian Spratt's report by the end of (Friday).
"Both reports will be carefully considered. We expect to publish them next week alongside a statement of the further actions that Government will be taking in the light of the reports."
