(Corrects headline, no change to story text)
By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS, Oct 22 (Reuters) – France on Thursday reported the first human case of the Shamonda virus usually found in livestock in a patient who later died, with authorities adding there was no risk to the general population at this stage.
Transmitted by biting midges and most commonly found in cattle, Shamonda has also been found in horses, alpaca, sheep and goats, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said.
“The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is carefully monitoring the situation after the French authorities announced the first ever reported human infection with Shamonda virus, a disease that has until now only affected animals,” the Stockholm-based ECDC said in a statement.”ECDC is in contact with the French authorities and European partners to investigate the potential public health implications.”
The French announcement said the leading hypothesis was that the patient was infected in eastern France, where the virus had circulated among animals this spring and summer.
“Based on the knowledge available regarding this virus, no health risk to the general population has been identified to date,” it said.
The ECDC said the patient died in early October and noted the victim had been receiving treatment for a serious illness that made them more susceptible to infection than the general population.
“Investigations into whether the virus caused or contributed to the patient’s death and how the infection was acquired are ongoing,” it said.
There are currently no commercially available vaccines against Shamonda virus, WOAH said.
Identified in Nigeria in the mid-1960s, Shamonda was first confirmed in Europe in late July after genomic tests on sick cattle in southern Germany, Switzerland and eastern France.
A report from France’s weekly animal health surveillance bulletin said the virus had also been detected in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and UK’s Jersey.
A study of French nine dairy farms found milk output fell by up to 75% in affected herds.
(Reporting by Sybille de la Hamaide, Makini Brice and Jennifer Rigby; editing by Jason Neely)
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