Over 1,000 camels have succumbed to an unidentified disease in Somali and Oromia regional states beginning last month. The disease also affected people who consume camel meat and milk in the affected areas of the two regions, authorities at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute disclosed.

Fears are growing the disease, and the increasing loss of cattle population poses a threat to the economies of these pastoralist areas of the country where more than 80pc of the camel population is found.

About 40 people in Somali and 158 in Oromia have contracted the disease from the camels either through prolonged contact or consumption of meat or milk, revealed a new report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this week. No human casualties have been reported thus far, while 35 of the 40 people hospitalised in the Somali region were discharged. Symptoms in humans include diarrhoea, fever, and vomiting.

"Although the people have been affected by the disease, no one has died," Yimer Mulugeta (DVM), director of bacterial parasitic and zoonotic research at the Institute, confirmed to Fortune.

The disease first surfaced in late May in the Rayitu and Legeda weredas of Bale Zone in Oromia Regional State. It has since spread to the Afder Zone and Kibir Baya and Babile weredas of the Somali Regional State. Officials at the Institute reported that the disease has different variants from those observed in the past, including trypanosomosis, sleep-sickness most prevalent camel disease in Ethiopia, affecting three percent of herds.

The unidentified disease mainly affects adult, pregnant and lactating camels, with those infected showing symptoms such as bleeding from the mouth and nose, high fever, watery eyes, and difficulty breathing. Once infected, a camel has a high chance of succumbing to the disease within 48 hours, according to Mohammed Mahmmud (DVM), animal health director in the Regional State.