Russia registers world’s first COVID vaccine for animals

Russia has registered the world’s first and only vaccine against COVID for animals “Carnivac-Cov,” deputy head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) Konstantin Savenkov told reporters, Report informs, referring to RIA Novosti.

The drug was developed by the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Federal Center for Animal Health”, subordinate to the service.

“The clinical trials of ‘Carnivac-Cov,’ which started in October last year, involved dogs, cats, arctic foxes, minks, foxes and other animals. Of the vaccinated animals, antibodies to coronavirus were developed in 100 percent of cases,” said the deputy head of the department.

“Already in April, mass production of the vaccine can be launched on the basis of the country’s biggest platform for the production of drugs for animals of the Federal Center for Animal Health,” he added.

“There is no scientific evidence of the transmission of the novel coronavirus infection from animals to humans, and this has been reported more than once by the World Health Organization (WHO),” Savenkov said.

In addition, animals can become infected with some species from the coronavirus family, other than COVID-19, he stressed.