Like something from a Hollywood horror film , researchers have found that the melting permafrost across Siberia is reviving long frozen strain of deadly splenic fever . Unfortunately , this story is all too literal , as so farat least 13 peoplehave been infected , and one child has cash in one’s chips . to try and stem the spread of the bacteria , the Russian government is planningon cull 100,000 reindeer , which host the pathogen and spread it over vast distance as they migrate .
For those living in the Yamal - Nenets region of Siberia , reindeer herding is one of the most important industries , with many earn their livelihood from the practice . But of late it may have started putting their lives at risk , as reindeer carcasses infect with anthrax have start thawing out from the melting the permafrost . Earlier this year , a 12 - class - old boy was pop by the bacterium , as well as an estimated 2,500 Greenland caribou .
It is thought that there are roughly 750,000 of the creatures live in the realm , many more than the nation can support . This has added to the worries , as it compounds the risk from disease as it is not only passed between animals , but because the over - grazing of the footing foreshorten the plant screening , thus increasing the thaw of the permafrost in summer , fix more potential that more anthrax will be released .
The governance now plans on culling 100,000 of these Rangifer tarandus , but experts revere that this is not enough . The director of the Urals Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology , Vladimir Bogdanov , told the Russian intelligence organizationRossiyskaya Gazetathat the figure should be more in the region of 200,000 , twice the official number .
The program is for the administration to buy all the reindeer off the local herders , and work on the animals themselves , meaning that exports of kernel will increase this year from 300 to 800 tonne ( 330 to 880 tons ) , though this programme has been met with resistance . As the principal income for many in the region , the outlook of losing so many reindeer is particularly unwished .
With clime change continuing to warm up the satellite , and the Arctic admit the hardest hit , it does seem that issues such as the waking up of diseases like “ zombie ” splenic fever are not going to go away anytime before long .
