National Institute for Animal Health - an unhealthy concern ?

Professor Paul-Pierre Pastoret was appointed 14th February 2002 as Director of the Institute for Animal Health and resigned on 4th April 2005 due to ill health.

Professor Martin Shirley, a world expert in the biology of parasitic diseases of poultry, was appointed Director of the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) on 22nd June 2006 . Professor Shirley had been Acting Director since November 2004 when the previous Director became ill . In the interim (IAH Press release 03/IAH/55 - 28/7/05) Professor Martin Shirley was appointed to the new post of Deputy Director (Science) in November 2004, since when "he has also been covering as Acting Director."

Mr Richard Shaw was appointed to the new post of Deputy Director (Operations) at the end of June 2004. Mr Shaw has a strong background in accountancy and business management.

So they took 2 years to find a Director and ended up appointing the inside man, evidently not the first choice witha sidekick accountant.

Meanwhile consider this public statement (O4 IAH/47 )11th November 2004 when Dr Shirley took over as Acting Director....

Senior management at the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) announced a recovery plan to staff this morning (11 November 2004) to return the Institute to a sustainable financial position as quickly as possible. Immediate action will be taken now to maintain the Institute’s long-term capability.

The recovery plan, developed by IAH, the Governing Body and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), requires that the Institute reduces staff numbers. Today’s announcement explained that the reduction in staff would be achieved partly by a combination of redeployment, natural wastage, and voluntary redundancies. However, the Institute also expects that some compulsory redundancies will be needed. IAH Secretary Mr Andrew Grice said, "We have been working closely with the Trade Unions to minimise the effects on our staff and science programme, and we will be keeping funders, and other stakeholders, informed of our progress in implementing the recovery plan.”

The Institute estimated that a total of approximately 70 posts would go from its three laboratories at Compton in Berkshire, Pirbright in Surrey and the Neuropathogenesis Unit (NPU) in Edinburgh...let's hope there are no aggrieved ex (or current) staff with few skills, sloppy procedures or funny ideas.

We are destined to hear a great deal more about the evidently cash strapped and underfunded Institute for Animal Health.... a first line of defence in the battle against bio-terrism .. apparently.