Russia registers world’s 1st Covid vaccine Carnivac-Cov for animals

The world's first animal vaccine against the novel coronavirus has been registered in Russia, the country's agriculture safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor on Wednesday said.

The immunity lasts for six months after the vaccination, but the dose's developers are continuing to analyse this, the watchdog said, according to a Reuters report.

Mass production of the Covid-19 vaccine could start as early as next month, Rosselkhoznadzor said.

The use of this vaccine, as per Russian scientists, can prevent the development of virus mutations.

Know everything about the vaccine for animals

The vaccine for animals, developed by a unit of Rosselkhoznadzor (Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance), was named Carnivac-Cov, the watchdog's deputy head Konstantin Savenkov has said.

"The clinical trials of Carnivac-Cov, which started last October, involved dogs, cats, Arctic foxes, minks, foxes and other animals," said Savenkov.

"It is the world's first and only product for preventing Covid-19 in animals," he said.

"The results of the trials allow us to conclude that the vaccine is harmless and highly immunogenic as all the vaccinated animals developed antibodies to the coronavirus in 100% of cases."

Russia already has three Covid-19 vaccines for humans, the most well-known of which is Sputnik V. Moscow has also given emergency approval to two others, EpiVacCorona and CoviVac.

Meanwhile, Russia’s coronavirus cases rose by 8,711 to 4,528,543 on 29 March, the anti-coronavirus crisis centre had said.