Legionnaires' disease probe at suspect foot-and-mouth lab

Aug 9, 2007, 16:22 GMT

London - British medical authorities confirmed Thursday they are investigating the possibility of a case of Legionnaire's disease originating at a laboratory already involved in a probe into a foot- and-mouth disease outbreak.

A worker at the government-run Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright, south of London, had contracted Legionnaire's disease and the facility was among places being routinely controlled to find the disease source.

The worker had displayed symptoms of the disease - a highly infectious severe form of pneumonia caused by a bacteria that contaminates water supplies - some time before the foot-and-mouth outbreak, authorities said.

However, they added that there was no connection between the two diseases. The Pirbright laboratory is in an exclusion zone set up during the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease which has resulted in cattle and sheep being slaughtered at three local farms.

The latest culling of 360 cattle was a precautionary measure at a farm believed to have been at risk but where no actual evidence of foot-and-mouth disease had been found, officials said.

An interim report released by the Health and Safety Executive has already said there is a 'strong probability' that the foot-and-mouth virus had escaped from the Pirbright research site which houses both the Institute for Animal Health and the US pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health. A detailed report was expected on Friday.

A ban on livestock movement brought in following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was meanwhile relaxed, and farmers outside the protection and surveillance zones were allowed to take animals to slaughter and dispose of dead livestock.