[citation needed] In 1987, Compton, Houghton and Pirbright became the Institute for Animal Health, being funded by BBSRC.

[3] The Pirbright site was implicated in the 2007 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak, with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) concluding that a local case of the disease was a result of contaminated effluent release either from the Pirbright Institute or the neighbouring Merial Animal Health laboratory.

[5] The work previously carried out at Compton has either moved out to the university sector, ended or has been transferred to the Pirbright site.

The Compton site currently carries out work on endemic (commonplace) animal diseases including some avian viruses and a small amount of bovine immunology whilst Pirbright works on exotic (unusual) animal diseases (usually caused by virus outbreaks).

[citation needed] The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided funding to the institute for research into veterinary infectious diseases and universal flu vaccine development.

[7][8][9] The Pirbright Institute carries out research, diagnostics and surveillance of viruses carried predominantly by farm animals, such as foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), African swine fever, bluetongue, lumpy skin disease and avian and swine flu.