Institute for Animal Health – an outline history



1894 Whitehall The first Government Central Veterinary Laboratory was established in a basement room in Whitehall Place.
1913 Pirbright The first buildings were constructed to form a Cattle Testing Station for tuberculosis.
1917 New Haw The Central Veterinary Laboratory (now the Veterinary Laboratories Agency Weybridge) moved into its current location, New Haw, near Weybridge.
1924 Pirbright Alterations and additions were made to the Cattle Testing Station at Pirbright to form the Pirbright Experimental Station for the Foot-and-Mouth (FMD) Research Committee. Large animal experiments commenced at Pirbright in 1925, whilst laboratory studies were done at New Haw until the end of 1927, after which all FMD research was undertaken at Pirbright, although administration of Pirbright remained at New Haw.
1937 Compton The recently formed Agricultural Research Council (ARC) established its first ARC Field Station at Compton, to provide healthy farm animals and accommodation for the extension of the work of others.
1939 Pirbright With the appointment of a whole-time Director of Research in September, Pirbright became independent of New Haw, becoming the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Institute, later known as the Research Institute (Animal Virus Diseases).
1942 Compton The Field Station became a Research Institute in its own right.
1947 Houghton The Veterinary Educational Trust (later the Animal Health Trust) purchased Houghton Grange and adjacent farms to build a Poultry Research Station.
1948 Houghton The first Director of the Houghton Poultry Research Station was appointed.
1963 Pirbright The institute at Pirbright was re-named the Animal Virus Research Institute.
1963 Compton The Field Station was renamed the Institute for Research on Animal Diseases.
1981 Edinburgh The Neuropathogenesis Unit (NPU) was established to study transmissible spongiform encephalopathies of both animals and humans. It was supported jointly by the ARC (later the Agricultural and Food Research Council) and the Medical Research Council.
1986 In 1986 NPU and the Compton, Houghton and Pirbright institutes were merged to form the Institute for Animal Disease Research, soon afterwards renamed the Institute for Animal Health, sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The NPU retained its name, whilst the three other components became known as Compton Laboratory, Houghton Laboratory and Pirbright Laboratory.
1992 Houghton The poultry research of Houghton Laboratory was transferred to Compton Laboratory, following the building of new facilities at Compton, and Houghton Laboratory was closed.
2007 Edinburgh The NPU became part of the BBSRC’s Roslin Institute, Edinburgh.