Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
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[1]
Date: Sun 1 Oct 2006, 1:27 AM
From: ...

Originally from: Alex Donaldson <...>

Rapid test and comments

As the person who was head of the Pirbright Laboratory during the UK 2001 FMD epidemic I am very familiar with the claims made by Roger Breese and Fred Brown for the rapid diagnostic methodfor FMD. However, as they were unwilling to provide scientific data to support their claims no real spirit of trust and collaboration was developed between us. ... Subsequently, much time had to be spent by me and colleagues at Pirbright explaining to policy makers and Defra that we were unable to verify the claims that were being made for the rapid test.

By contrast, over 200 scientists, both veterinary and non-veterinary, from other institutions in the UK, other European and antipodean countries came to Pirbright and supported us at different stages during the epidemic.

Those friends and colleagues freely and unselfishly assisted us in the true spirit of collaboration. They did sterling work and for their support I will always have heartfelt gratitude. I am glad to record that during the epidemic there was excellent collaboration in the area of molecular virology between Peter Mason and his group at Plum Island and colleagues at Pirbright.