LONDON, Aug. 5 — British health inspectors combed two veterinary laboratories in southern England on Sunday after it was discovered that the strain of foot-and-mouth disease at a farm four miles away was the same as the one used in the production of vaccine at the facilities.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said that the laboratories, which house the government’s Institute of Animal Health and a private pharmaceutical company, Merial Animal Health, were a “possible” source of the virus but that a definitive conclusion had not been reached.
Inspectors will concentrate on security at the laboratories during their search for a possible leak of the virus, Mr. Benn said.
He appealed to farmers to continue monitoring their livestock for symptoms of the disease, and he said a protection zone around the affected farm had been extended to include the laboratories.
In its statement, the environment department said the strain used at the laboratories for vaccine production was “not one currently known to be recently found in animals.”
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