September 5, 2007

experts respond to Foot and Mouth report

The report identified the causes of the outbreak at Pirbright, Surrey in August.

Keith Plumb, Chairman of the Pharma Subject Group, Institution of Chemical Engineers, said:

“Whilst we must wait until the official HSE report is published on Friday before passing full judgement, media reports about the recent foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey raise some important points about safety, maintenance and virus handling in research environments.

“On the assumption that the treatment plant on the IAH site was intended to provide bio-decontamination it is not surprising that the pipe running from the Merial site contained live viruses. During the manufacture of a vaccine it should be expected that some live viruses will be washed into the effluent system during the cleaning of equipment. This effluent would be then treated using heat and/or chemical bio-decontamination.

“However, what does come as a surprise is that Merial were apparently allowed to transfer untreated effluent from their site to the IAH site. A virulent and persistent virus like Foot and Mouth Disease Virus should be treated within the same building as it was being used and not transferred anywhere else on the same site, let alone transferred to another site.

“Transferring dangerous liquid underground is not a good idea since it is difficult to detect leaks. A much better idea would be to run the pipe above ground so that any leaks are visible. Better still would be to use a double pipe system that allows leaks to be trapped and an automatic leak detection system installed.

“Having a pipe transferring liquid from one site to another is likely to lead to confusion about who is responsible for its maintenance. The best way to overcome this problem would be to completely separate the effluent systems and ensure that waste containing live viruses travels the shortest distance possible.”