Plague, pestilence and floods - (well, foot and mouth and flooding, actually)

We gossip a lot in my (former) profession. Especially when there's a big story breaking and if you're an agricultural or animal health journalist, a foot and mouth outbreak IS a big story. We'll talk to practically anyone in the hope of turning up an interesting angle or a nugget of information that the rest of the pack has missed.

So I'm surely not the only reporter who heard tales fromlocal barstaff about completely flooded cellars last Saturday, 28th July. That's just about the right point on the putative timeline to make one wonder whether there might be a connection with the escape of the foot-and-mouth virus into the local environment.

Given that I'm not a scientist and I have only modest knowledge of the Pirbright biosecurity set-up, I don't know if that's a viable hypothesis or not.

And not being a journalist any longer, it's not even my job to go and find out. (and believe me that stings at a time like this!) Instead, I've handed over my pet theory to Animal Pharm's new editor, Jamie Day.

Having to carry on with business plans and budgets at a time like this seems particularly unfair. I'm reduced to checking my own publication's website just to stay up to date!

Foot and Mouth? Foot in Mouth...

You could argue that it's really rather sad that it takes an industry crisis to kickstart my blog again. Fair enough, actually. It is, frankly, a bit sad.

But that I suppose is in the nature of journalists. And as an ex-journalist, opportunities to put pen to paper (oh alright, fingers-to-keyboard-to-screen if you prefer) are getting thinner on the ground, so the blog comes into its own.

But I digress. (No change there, then.)

At the weekend, I was staying in a charming little place called Tilford Woods, not far from Flexford, as I have done for a couple of weekends just lately.

Flexford, as you may recall, is the site of the current outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK.

Being a classic news junkie, and a bit starved of excitement lately because of this promotion to publishing, a promptly hopped in the car and high-tailed it down to Flexford where I mingled with agricultural and mainstream journalists all doing that rather incestuous thing where, in the absence of anyone else to interview, we more or less interview each other...

"Pirbirght?" I exclaimed airily on Saturday morning.... "Don't be daft. I'd bet my next paycheck it didn't come from Pirbright." And then I held forth about their fantastic biosecurity and wonderfully professional staff for a good ten minutes.

Ho hum.

That's my professional credibility down the drain then.

But you know, I still find it hard to believe. At the Institute for Animal Health and at Merial, the biosecurity measures are stringent and thorough. The staff are incredibly professional. At both facilities, everyone understands the consequences if a virus escapes. And it's in nobody's interest to alienate their own stakeholders.

From what I understand, it's clear now that there have been no obvious breaches of biosecurity. If I were responsible for the investigation from here onwards (and obviously I'm not), I would be asking myself not just "how could this happen?" but "why did this happen now?"

What's new?

What's changed?

What's different?

What else has happened recently that hasn't happened before?

And whatever the answers to those questions, that's where I'd start looking.