By Sybille de La Hamaide and Gus Trompiz
PARIS, Oct 22 (Reuters) - France reported the first human case of the Shamonda virus usually found in livestock on Thursday in a hospital patient who died, though authorities said there was no risk to the general population.
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 man had been hospitalised in Lyon with an unrelated serious disease, a French health ministry official told reporters.
The victim was in his 60s and lived in the Lyon area, local newspaper Le Progres reported.
The UN's World Health Organization said it was in contact with French authorities about the outbreak.
"Based on current information and knowledge of the transmission of closely related viruses, this is an isolated human case and it is unlikely to lead to wider spread at this time," said the Geneva-based WHO, which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies.
"We are clearly dealing with a case that is unprecedented from a scientific and virological point of view. It is linked to this man's severely weakened immune system," Gregory Emery, head of France's health directorate, told reporters.
"From a medical and public health point of view, there is no alert and no crisis," he added.
VIRUS SPREADING IN ANIMALS IN EUROPE
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).
There has been no report of cattle-to-human or human-to-human transmission, Emery said.
Past cases of comparable viruses also suggested limited risks from Shamonda for human health, said Dr Ben Brennan of the University of Glasgow's Centre for Virus Research.
He cited the Schmallenberg virus that affected livestock in Europe more than a decade ago without leading to human cases, and the Cristoli virus that was linked to the death of a fragile patient in France but was not followed by other cases.
Shamonda 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 it had also been detected in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Jersey.
The virus has several effects on animals, with infected cattle showing diarrhoea, weakness, loss of appetite and, less often, fever, French animal health authorities said.
A study of nine French dairy farms found milk production fell by up to 75%.
(Reporting by Sybille de la Hamaide, Gus Trompiz, Makini Brice, Jennifer Rigby and Olivia Le Poidevin; editing by Jason Neely)
