Ah, it's probably a pipeline connecting the two laboratories that could have leaked the virus. That neatly avoids pointing the finger at anyone in particular, unless we ask what the virus was doing in the pipe in the first place. Was the flow from the Merial facility to a treatment plant run by the government facility?

Will Merial be asked to pay anything towards the horrendous costs? Just think of the millions they were expecting to flow into their bank, from sale of the products emanating from their research.

However, the report seems to hit at the government facility there, putting the ball pretty firmly back with HM Government. I don't suppose we'll hear an apology or have a refund on our tax bill! I suppose the answer will be the usual round of lateral promotions and OBEs.

With all the other lethal viruses that are being researched at Pirbright and elsewhere, how do we know that we won't be seeing more bio-security leaks in the future?

Might any of this suggest to anyone that maybe we shouldn't be playing with fire, with this sort of research?