Winnipeg‚s national research facility received its first shipment of biosafety level-4 viruses, launching it into the elite company of 13 research facilities worldwide that are capable of handling these dangerous pathogens.
The Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health received samples of the Ebola, Lassa, Marburg and Hunan viruses from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention June 8.
The year-old Winnipeg facility, operated jointly by Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, contains Canada‚s first biosafety level-4 laboratory and the world‚s first — and only — facility to combine human and animal health disease research facilities at the highest level of biocontainment. This means that researchers can collaborate as they study established and emerging diseases in human and animal populations. About 220 people now work at the $200-million high-security facility.
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Barbara Sibbald
CMAJ