No biosecurity breach: firm linked to Britain's foot and mouth outbreak

PIRBRIGHT, England (AFP) - A leading pharmaceutical firm being investigated over Britain's foot and mouth disease outbreak insisted yesterday it was confident there had been no biosecurity breach at its laboratory.

"We at Merial welcomed the arrival of the indepenent investigation team to our centre here at Pirbright," a spokesman for Merial Animal Health Limited said outside the laboratory at Pirbright, south-west of London.

"This centre operates to the very highest international standards and we insist on stringent adherence to processes and procedures for health, safety and environmental protection, quality control, quality assurance and regulatory compliance.

"We have been operating on this site for 15 years and during that time have produced hundreds of millions of vaccine doses. In all that time, we have never had a breach in our biosecurity.

"There has been, and continues to be, intense speculation regarding the possible causes of this outbreak.

"While we at Merial have complete confidence in the integrity of our biosecurity, and our initial investigation shows no breach in our procedures, it is really too early in this investigation for anyone to determine the cause of the outbreak."