Institute for Animal Health sign. A sign outside the Pirbright Laboratory, part of the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) in Surrey, UK. It is an international reference laboratory for the emergency diagnosis of diseases such as foot and mouth and bluetongue. On 4th August 2007 it was announced that the strain of foot and mouth disease responsible for the UK 2007 foot and mouth outbreak was similar to that in use at Pirbright. It has since emerged that the virus had probably been present in a pipe on the laboratory site. It is thought that the pipe, which runs to the adjoining pharmaceutical firm Merial, may have been damaged by tree roots, leading to the outbreak.