MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities are evacuating nomadic reindeer herders and quarantining part of a Siberian region after an outbreak of anthrax killed more than 1,000 of their animals. 
 
 The appearance of the bacterial disease in the Yamalo-Nenets region is the first fatal anthrax outbreak reported in Russia for 75 years. 
 
 The governor's office for the region, which lies 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow, said 13 people, including children, have been hospitalized for the disease and 63 people have been potentially affected. The herders are being evacuated to the regional capital of Salekhard. 
 
 Governor Dmitry Kolybin said Tuesday "we have taken all measures to isolate the area. Now the most important thing is the safety and health of our fellow countrymen — the reindeer herders and specialists involved in the quarantine." ||||| 
 
 Reindeer in the Russian peninsula of Yamal. (Siberian Times) 
 
 First a heatwave hit Siberia. Then came the anthrax. 
 
 Temperatures have soared in western Russia’s Yamal tundra this summer. Across Siberia, some provinces warmed an additional 10 degrees Fahrenheit beyond normal. In the fields, large bubbles of vegetation appeared above the melting permafrost — strange pockets of methane or, more likely, water. Record fires blazed through dry Russian grassland. 
 
 In one of the more unusual symptoms of unseasonable warmth, long-dormant bacteria appear to be active. For the first time since 1941, anthrax struck western Siberia. Thirteen Yamal nomads were hospitalized, including four children, the Siberian Times reported. The bacteria took an even worse toll on wildlife, claiming some 1,500 reindeer since Sunday. 
 
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 According to NBC News, the outbreak is thought to stem from a reindeer carcass that died in the plague 75 years ago. As the old flesh thawed, the bacteria once again became active. The disease tore through the reindeer herds, prompting the relocation of dozens of the indigenous Nenet community. Herders face a quarantine that may last until September. 
 
 The governor, Dmitry Kobylkin, declared a state of emergency. On Tuesday, Kobylkin said “all measures” had been taken to isolate the area, according to AP. “Now the most important thing is the safety and health of our fellow countrymen — the reindeer herders and specialists involved in the quarantine.” 
 
 Anthrax has broken out in Russia several times, including one outbreak stemming from a 1979 accident at a military facility. To the south of Yamal, anthrax may rarely appear when infection spreads from cattle; a man died from such exposure in 2012, the Siberian Times reported. 
 
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 Zombie bacteria that awaken from old corpses might sound like the stuff of an “X-Files” episode. The premise is far from a complete fiction, however. 
 
 For one, anthrax bacteria are hardy microbe. As University of Missouri bacteriologist George Stewart told the Missourian in 2014, the organisms turn into spores in the cold. They play the long game, waiting in the soil for the temperatures to rise. Once it hits a certain threshold, they morph back into a more mobile, infectious state. 
 
 In Missouri, anthrax tends to be more worrisome for farmers than for consumers. “It’s more of a threat if you’re a cow,” Stewart told the Missourian. “Cows are killed by anthrax when they pick up the spores when they’re grazing in grass or drinking water out of ponds, and that sort of thing.” 
 
 In Russia’s north, however, the situation is different. 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. 
 
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 “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.” 
 
 Anthrax microbes are not the only permafrost bacteria that have environmental scientists’ hackles raised. As University of Florida geologist Thomas S. Bianchi wrote at the Conversation in October, as the Arctic warms up it provides more organic matter for cold-climate bacteria to eat. Although the organic matter is ancient, it appears modern bacteria can still digest it. And as they consume the permafrost, the microorganisms excrete carbon dioxide — adding to the greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere. 
 
 [Thanks to climate change, the Arctic is turning green] ||||| MOSCOW — Thirteen members of a nomadic Siberian community have been hospitalized after a heat wave thawed the carcass of an anthrax-infected reindeer and sparked an outbreak of the disease. 
 
 Around 1,500 of the animals have died from the highly infectious disease since Sunday, the government of Russia's Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district announced on its website Tuesday. 
 
 Reindeer gather in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district on August 2, 2015. Sergei Karpukhin / REUTERS FILE 
 
 A state of emergency has been imposed throughout the region in western Siberia due to the incident — the first of its kind since 1941. 
 
 The carcass of a reindeer thought to have died from anthrax decades ago thawed and released the bacteria, sending the disease rippling through a population of animals already weakened by unusually high temperatures, according to local officials. 
 
 PHOTOS: Warming Threatens Lifestyle of Russian Herders 
 
 Temperatures in the Yamal tundra above the Arctic Circle have hit highs of 95 degrees this summer, compared to an average of 77 degrees. 
 
 A map showing the location of Russia's Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district. Google Maps 
 
 At least 63 members of the Nenet community have been relocated as a result of the outbreak, their tents disinfected and children sent to a boarding school, the government said. The Nenets are traditional deer-herders and their livelihoods are linked to the animals. 
 
 A mass vaccination of reindeer is underway in the region, local officials said. 
 
 It may be too late for many of the animals because anthrax can kill deer within three days of infecting them, Vladimir Bogdanov, a biology professor with the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the RBC news website. 
 
 Yamal authorities stopped vaccinating reindeer 10 years ago because there had been no outbreaks for more than half-a-century — an apparent mistake, Bogdanov added. 
 
 A microscopic picture of spores and vegetative cells of Bacillus anthracis — which causes the disease anthrax — is pictured in this file photograph. Reuters / Reuters, file 
 
 Local authorities said they were considering the best way to dispose of dead reindeer. The usual method — burning — has severe risks in the tundra, as much of Siberia is already engulfed in wildfires. 
 
 Anthrax has a mortality rate of 25 to 80 percent, depending on a strain. 
 
 It was explored as a biological weapon by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, though never used. 
 
 Anthrax bacteria can remain dormant in dead bodies for decades, spreading to living organisms when exposed to them.
– After decades spent trapped inside a frozen reindeer carcass, anthrax is back to wreak havoc on Siberia, the Washington Post reports. Siberia hadn't had an anthrax outbreak since 1941. But, according to NBC News, approximately 1,500 reindeer have been killed by the bacterium since Sunday and 13 members of the nomadic Nenet community have been hospitalized. Four of those who have been hospitalized are children. Authorities believe the new outbreak started when the carcass of an infected reindeer, frozen for decades, thawed during the Yamolo-Nenets region's unusually warm summer. Temperatures have risen to highs of 95 degrees this summer—nearly 20 degrees above the average. Authorities in the area ceased vaccinating reindeer against anthrax a decade ago because it had been more than 50 years since an outbreak. But scientists estimate the bacterium can survive being frozen in Siberia's permafrost for more than a century. A state of emergency has been declared in the region. Dozens of people are being relocated, and the Nenet community, which relies on herding reindeer, may be quarantined until September. A mass vaccination of reindeer is underway. "We have taken all measures to isolate the area," the region's governor says, per the AP. "Now the most important thing is the safety and health of our fellow countrymen." (In Finland, reindeer glow in the dark.)