Lab tests confirmed that two individuals had contracted the illness after eating marmot meat.
The Mongolian Ministry of Health confirmed two people died from plague after consuming raw meat and internal organs of a marmot.
It was December when the first reports started coming in: All across the frozen Mongolian steppe, saiga were dying from a virus. The antelope species, with its tawny coat, ringed horns and incongruous oversize snout, has roamed the world's chilly northern grasslands since the Pleistocene.
Observations From Members 