TORONTO – Insect scientists at Brock University have received a shipment of Zika virus that will allow them to see whether mosquitoes native to Canada can become infected with the pathogen and potentially transmit it to humans.

The St. Catharines, Ont., university is the only academic institution in Canada with a CL3 containment lab that includes an insectary.

The high-level containment lab allows research on mosquito-borne viruses to be safely conducted.

The only other such facility in Canada is located at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

The research will be led by Fiona Hunter, a medical and veterinary entomologist who specializes in mosquitoes and other biting insects.

There has been an explosion of Zika infections in South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean since the first cases began showing up in Brazil last May.

The virus has been potentially linked to more than 4,400 cases of microcephaly in newborns born to Brazilian women who may have been infected while pregnant.