Canadian scientist on the run after trying to export pathogen to China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-04-08

Both Yu and Nielsen are former employees of the
 Canadian Food Inspection Agency. (File photo/CFP)

A former Canadian Food Inspection Agency researcher is believed to be on the run after her co-conspirator was arrested for trying to transport a highly contagious bacteria out of the country to China.

Wei Ling Yu is now the subject of a Canada-wide warrant after fellow researcher, 67-year-old Klaus Nielsen, was arrested last October on his way the country's Ottawa airport in possession of 17 vials of pathogen — live brucella bacteria that can infect livestock and humans. If inhaled, it can infect people with flu-like symptoms and was once regarded as an ideal biological weapon used by US authorities after World War II to kill the livestock and sicken the populations of enemy countries.

According to a statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police last week, Nielsen and Yu are accused of working to commercialize intellectual property belonging to the CFIA and sell the bacteria abroad.

Nielsen had been a seasoned researcher of the bacteria and was part of a team scientists that won a CFIA Technology Transfer Award in 2003 for developing a 15-second test for detecting brucellosis in cattle, the disease caused by brucella.

He is set to appear in a Canadian court on April 17, while Yu, a resident of Ottawa, is believed to be in hiding in China. Local police declined to confirm if extradition would be an option if Yu is apprehended overseas.

Authorities had been investigating Nielsen and Yu since March 2011 after receiving a tip from the CFIA. Both are charged with breach of trust by a public officer, with Nielsen also facing charges under Canada's Export and Import Permits Act, Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act and Human Pathogens and Toxins Act.