June 6 (Bloomberg) -- An Ontario man who returned from a holiday in Germany may be Canada’s first case of E. coli linked to the European outbreak, according to Ontario’s health ministry.

“We do have a suspected case in Ontario that’s related to the E. coli outbreak in Germany,” Andrew Morrison, spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, said today in an interview. It would be the first case in Ontario and probably the first in Canada, he said.

The man, who lives in the Peel region near Toronto, is believed to have picked up the toxin during a holiday to Germany this spring, where he ate the local food.

The ministry is doing testing to confirm that the E. coli case is linked to that in Europe, which has become the world’s deadliest outbreak of the infection. The man has been released from hospital.

“We’re expecting full confirmation on his case perhaps later this week or early next,” Morrison said. “We’re just monitoring him closely to make sure that he’s ok, but other than that there are no other complications.”

At least 22 people have died and 2,333 people have fallen ill in the latest outbreak, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

--Editors: David Scanlan

To contact the reporter on this story: Doug Alexander in Toronto at dalexander3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net; David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net