U.K. Has `Probable' Leak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease The U.K. experienced a ``probable'' new leak of the foot-and-mouth disease virus at the same laboratory that was at the center of an outbreak in August. The incident occurred on Nov. 19 at the Merial facility at the Pirbright laboratory in Surrey, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said in an e-mailed statement. A malfunction was found in a valve on a pipe leading from a centrifuge that's used to separate the live virus from waste product, Benn said. Operations were immediately stopped and the machine and pipes decontaminated. ``Merial judged that the valve had been leaking, allowing an unintended probable release of live FMD virus into the contained drainage system, which was then pumped to the final chemical treatment facility without being heat-treated,'' Benn said. Merial's license to produce vaccines using foot-and-mouth disease was suspended. The live disease hasn't entered the environment, a government spokeswoman said in a telephone interview. The August outbreak at the same laboratory site was probably caused by faulty drainage at a research facility, the Health and Safety Executive said Sept. 7. It wasn't possible to identify which of the two units that share the laboratory site, the government-run Institute for Animal Health or Merial Animal Health Ltd., was responsible for that incident, the HSE said. Leaking pipes at the site probably contained the virus, which spread to two nearby farms after being brought to the surface by rains and contaminating the vehicles of workers renovating the site....