Damaged pipe caused foot-and-mouth scare

摘要

A leaky pipe was the probable cause of last month's outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom (see Nature 448,732-733; 2007), say two reports commissioned by the UK government. The reports found that drainage problems had been observed for years in the plumbing between the government's Institute for Animal Health in Surrey and a nearby private facility that researches vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease.