A final report on the United Kingdom's (UK) August outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) says it may have been caused by an aging drainage system at a government site where the virus was handled, and later transported by construction workers on their vehicle tires to the infection site four miles away.

The report by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) delved into potential breaches of biosecurity at the Pirbright research facility site. The strain that affected livestock Aug. 3 in the Surrey area was a lab strain not normally found in the environment, but handled at the site in Pirbright. Read the report at hse.gov.uk/news/archive/07aug/finalreport.pdf.

But within days after British animal health officials lifted restrictions imposed by the Aug. 3 discovery of FMD, two more cases were confirmed in Surrey. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs confirmed the new cases were the same FMD strain involved in the August discovery.