Scientists at CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong are playing their part in a global effort to tame the highly infectious Ebola virus wreaking havoc in west Africa.

Since the first live sample of the Ebola virus arrived in Australia last September, CSIRO researchers have been working in a high-security laboratory, one of only a few worldwide where scientists can work with live samples of the most deadly viruses, including Ebola, SARS and Nipah.

Research scientist Glenn Marsh working at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong.

‘’Working with Ebola is a fairly new area for us,’’ research scientist Glenn Marsh said.

The first step is to identify a suitable animal species in which to study the virus. This means finding an animal that reacts to Ebola in a similar way to humans – expressing the same incubation period, symptoms, disease progression and outcome.