An employee at Canada's Food Inspection Agency has been put in isolation for three weeks amid fears they were exposed to the Ebola virus.

The worker noticed a rip in their protective suit after working with pigs that had been deliberately infected with the virus as part of an experiment in Winnipeg.

Image: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, Winnipeg. Pic: Google

Health officials, who did not name the worker, say they have been isolated for 21 days.

They said there was no risk to the wider community.

According to CBC News the employee was offered an Ebola vaccine used in trials in Africa, but officials would not say whether the medicine was taken.


The experiment was being conducted at the Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease.