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.
It is suspected that the victim was bitten by a midge carrying the virus in eastern France where it had circulated among animals this spring and summer, the government said in a statement.
The Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said it was monitoring the situation.
“ECDC is in contact with the French authorities and European partners to investigate the potential public health implications,” it said in a statement.
The patient died in early October and had been receiving treatment for a serious illness that made them more susceptible to infection than the general population, the ECDC said.
“Investigations into whether the virus caused or contributed to the patient’s death and how the infection was acquired are ongoing,” it said.
The victim was a man in 60s living in the Lyon area in eastern France, local newspaper Le Progres reported. “Based on the knowledge available regarding this virus, no health risk to the general population has been identified to date,” the government said.
Shamonda is transmitted by biting midges and most commonly found in cattle, though it has also been found in horses, alpaca, sheep and goats, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
It is not classified as a disease under the EU Animal Health Law and not subject to official surveillance or control measures.
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.
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 the UK’s Jersey.
The virus has several effects on animals. A study of nine French dairy farms found milk production fell by up to 75%, with affected cattle showing diarrhoea, weakness, loss of appetite and, less often, fever, French animal health authorities said.
