Photo: AP

A heatwave sweeping across western Russia’s Yamal tundra, above the Arctic circle, has triggered an outbreak of anthrax. The hardy bacteria, thought to have made its home in the frozen flesh of a reindeer carcass, lay dormant in the permafrost—until now.

According to the Siberian Times, 40 Yamal nomads have been hospitalized in the outbreak—half of them children—although there have not yet been any confirmed cases. Dozens of the indigenous Nenet community have been relocated, and some 1,200 reindeer have died since Sunday.

The outbreak has occurred in a heavily-trafficked area for reindeer herders. “The location is an important pass way for many reindeer nomads, used in all seasons. The nomads with the furthest longest migration routes use it in early May, just before calving time, moving up North in spring towards their summer pastures,” Professor Florian Stammler, of the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland, told the Times. “The second ‘wave’ of herders use this location as a summer site, where they group with several households uniting many small herds into a big one for withstanding mosquito harassment.”

“Due to the high mobility of herders using this site, utmost care has to be taken for preventing of anthrax being spread all over the Yamal Peninsula,” Stammler added.

It has been 75 years since anthrax—which, depending on a strain, has a mortality rate of 25 to 80 percent—struck western Siberia. Yamal officials stopped vaccinating reindeer against anthrax a decade ago, Vladimir Bogdanov, a biology professor with the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the RBC. Anthrax can kill deer within three days of infection. The Washington Post reports:

If the link between an old deer corpse and a new outbreak is confirmed, it will solidify concerns about anthrax some scientists have harbored for years. In 2011, two researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences writing in the journal Global Health Action assessed the conditions required for anthrax to appear in Yakutia, a region to the east of Yamal that contains 200 burial grounds of cattle that died from the disease.

Citing earlier work from 2007, they estimated anthrax spores remain viable in the permafrost for 105 years. Buried deeper, the bacteria may be able to hibernate for even longer. At the same time, where meteorological data were available they indicate temperatures in Yakutia are increasing.

“As a consequence of permafrost melting, the vectors of deadly infections of the 18th and 19th centuries may come back,” the scientists warned, “especially near the cemeteries where the victims of these infections were buried.” Cattle grave sites should be monitored, they concluded, and “public health authorities should maintain permanent alertness.”

“This case won’t affect exports or the quality of meat,” a spokesman for the governor told the Times. “This case is local, it is about one one centre - Yaro To lake in Yamalsky district. No other centres (of anthrax infection) have been discovered.”

Most of Yamal’s reindeer meat exports go to Germany, Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom. “Control and safety measures have been restricted across the whole region,” the spokesman said. “There is no single chance that infected venison will make it to slaughter complex.”

An outbreak of Bubonic plague was reported in southern Siberia’s Altai mountains earlier this month.