Siberian Heat Wave Thaws Dead Reindeer, Unleashes Anthrax Outbreak

Eric Chaney
Published: July 28,2016

Inhalational anthrax inside tissue; showing rod-shaped bacilli (yellow) and an erythrocyte (red).
(National Institute of Health)

Unusually high temperatures in a northern region of Russia thawed the carcass of a reindeer, which has led to an outbreak of anthrax in the Yamalo-Nenets region Western Siberia.
“Considering the viability of the infectious agent of anthrax - 100 years or more - and its resistance to the change of temperatures professionals assume that animals looking for food came across the site of an animal that died of anthrax and then infected each other,” the regional governor’s office said in a statement to the Siberian Times.
More than a dozen people, including children, have been hospitalized and 63 people have been potentially affected by the disease, which has already killed more than 1,000 reindeer.
"This part of northwest Russia has seen an extended spell of warm temperatures spanning over two weeks,” said weather.com senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.
Pangody, in the heart of the Yamalo-Nenets region, had high temperatures of at least 82 degrees Fahrenheit 18 straight days from July 6-23, peaking at 92.7 on July 23.
The governor’s office told the Times that some of the deaths may be due to heatstroke as “the animals are unaccustomed to such high temperatures.”
(MORE: June 2016 Was Warmest on Record for Lower 48, NOAA Says)

Russian authorities are evacuating residents, mostly nomadic reindeer herders, to the regional capital of Salekhard.
“We have taken all measures to isolate the area,” regional Governor Dmitry Kolybin told the Associated Press. "Now the most important thing is the safety and health of our fellow countrymen — the reindeer herders and specialists involved in the quarantine."
A mass vaccination of reindeer is currently underway in the region, but it may be too late, Vladimir Bogdanov, a biology professor with the Russian Academy of Sciences, told NBC News via the RBC news website.
The appearance of the disease is the first fatal anthrax outbreak reported in Russia for 75 years.
Yamal authorities stopped vaccinating reindeer 10 years ago, NBC reports, because there had been no outbreaks for more than half-a-century - a mistake,  Bogdanov said.
Measures are now underway for the disposal of the dead animals, which are strewn over more than 3 miles, Vyacheslav Khritin, head of Salekhard Vet Centre, told the Siberian Times.
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Most of the reindeer in the area are raised as a food source, and the meat is exported to Germany, Sweden and Finland. A spokesman for the governor’s offices told the Times that safety measures have been tightened across the entire region.
“There is no single chance that infected venison will make it to slaughter complex: all of them, each and every patch is thoroughly checked in line with the highest standards,” the spokesman said. “We're interested in exporting high-quality venison just like it has always been.”