'Zombie' viruses have been revived from Siberian permafrost. Could they infect people? - Livescience.com

Siberian reindeer herds periodically contract anthrax from bacteria in melted permafrost, according to research published in 2021 in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science (opens in new tab), and the issue has affected a handful of humans in these regions as well.

For the new study, which has not been peer-reviewed, the researchers isolated 13 newly described viruses from seven permafrost samples and two water samples taken from Siberian rivers.

Three of the viruses — named Megavirus mammoth, Pithovirus mammoth and Pandoravirus mammoth — were found inside 27,000-year-old petrified mammoth wool.

"The ones we revived are no danger at all; they only infect amoeba," Jean-Michel Claverie (opens in new tab), a computational microbiologist at Aix-Marseille University in France and co-author of the new study, told Live Science in an email.

However, the authors said this study disproves an older hypothesis that permafrost contains few viable microbes; in addition to the viruses they revived, the team found trace evidence of numerous other species, including some related to known human pathogens, such as poxviruses and herpesviruses. .

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As of now, political upheaval in the region has halted the collection of new permafrost samples.

"Because of the Russia-Ukraine war, all our collaborations are stopped now," Claverie explained, adding that his lab will continue to study the viruses they have.

"We believe the point is made that viruses of any kind can survive in permafrost," Claverie said.