In 2017, over 140,000 reindeer will be vaccinated against anthrax, the Nenets Autonomous Area website quoted Alexander Antonov, the local chief veterinary inspector, as saying at an emergency anti-epizootic commission session.

"Like last year, the vaccination campaign will cover the maximum number of reindeer owned privately by individual herders and by the Yamb-To family herding community whose reindeer graze in the northeast of the Nenets area," the report says.

In 2016, the anthrax outbreak in the neighboring Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area prompted the Nenets authorities to urgently expand reindeer vaccinations to cover an extra 35,000 animals. These were mostly reindeer belonging to individual herders who were not registered in the Nenets area but who regularly bring their herds from neighboring Yamal, including animals from the Yamb-To family community.

Experts said the epidemic risk in the Nenets area is low, as the reindeer receive an anti-anthrax dose every year.