From Times Online:
The deliberate release of viral material, possibly in an act of sabotage, may have caused the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, officials said last night.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said in a report ordered by the Prime Minister that “release by human movement [of the FMD virus] must be considered a real possibilityâ€.
Inspectors all but discounted theories that the virus escaped by air or water from the laboratory complex close to where the outbreak started, although they are continuing to investigate the possibility of equipment failure or a security breach.
The HSE concluded in the report — which was sent to Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, last night — that there was “a strong probability†that the virus came from the research centre three miles from the first outbreak in a herd of cattle in Surrey.
Mr Benn said that sabotage could not be ruled out. “The truth is we do not know. That is why further investigations need to take place.â€
The finding strengthens suspicions raised at the weekend when it was discovered that the strain of virus was one found only in laboratories. Investigators were unable, however, to decide whether the foot-and-mouth contamination escaped from the Institute of Animal Health, the government-funded body that first identified the virus, or Merial, a private company that shares the same site at Pirbright.
Further genetic analysis of the virus is being carried out to determine from which of the laboratory units the virus originated.
Any security breach could have been either deliberate or accidental and it was confirmed last night that government scientists have been inspecting allotments close to the first outbreak which are used by Pirbright workers to grow vegetables.
The report was released yesterday evening more than six hours after the 48-hour deadline requested by Mr Benn. The reasons for the delay were unclear, despite suggestions that “political and presentational†concerns were a factor.
There are reports of what The Telegraph describes as “shocking security lapses” which allowed the disease to spread. “Sabotage” not being ruled is code for the British government being unable to explain away this outbreak as an accident, but clearly unwilling to go so far as to describe it as terrorism.
18 Doughty Street has some thoughts on how this latest disaster will effect the Brown administration.
And where is your evidence?
I suggest you look at America’s own failings on *9/11 before bemoaning minor incidents in the UK.
* now what hit the Pentagon?
Our failing was treating the first WTC bombing as a criminal matter, and a minor incident, rather than part of a larger movement by Islamists to create the anarchy they need to establish their Caliphate. Plus, if someone took a potentially fatal germ from a lab and started throwing it around the farms, devastating those small farmers in the process, i wouldn’t call it a minor incident, I’d call it a serious crime at best, a terrorist act at worst.
Those farmers who may lose their farm probably don’t think it’s mnor, and if this was ecoli that got into the food supply you wouldn’t either.
And by the gods man, don’t tell me you’re a truther! A plane hit the Pentagon, but if you don’t buy that, I have a post coming up on trutherism you should read.
Hmm, I wonder if it were some stupid “animal rights activists” that may have caused this problem. Kind of reminds me of some sort of horror flicks that have come out in recent years when some crazy “animal rights activists” broke into a lab full of monkeys and let loose a lethal virus to the human population.