The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it had asked Iraqi authorities to probe media reports of several cases of Rift Valley Fever in animals.

The viral disease primarily affects animals but can infect humans through handling of blood or organs of infected animals, leading to high rates of disease and death, according to the United Nations health agency. Herders, farmers, slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians are deemed at higher risk through handling of animal tissue during slaughtering, assisting with animal births, conducting veterinary procedures or disposing of carcasses.

"We are aware of media reports and have put in a formal request for verification to Iraq," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva.

No other details were available, but the WHO was working closely with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome to try to confirm the animal outbreak, he said.

Human infections have also resulted from the bites of infected mosquitoes, but to date no human-to-human transmission has been documented, according to the WHO. I

n severe cases the disease triggers haemorrhaging in humans, causing the victims to vomit blood or bleed to death. Human outbreaks of Rift Valley Fever, first identified in 1931, have occurred over the years in Africa, mainly Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania. Animal outbreaks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 2000 marked the first time the disease was detected outside the African continent.