Russian authorities order destruction of vaccine batch linked to mass dog deaths
Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, has ordered the recall and destruction of batch No. 20 of the “Multikan-8” vaccine, which has been linked to dog deaths. The agency sent the order in a letter (.pdf) to the vaccine’s manufacturer, the company “Vetbiokhim,” and published the document on its website.
The letter directs “Vetbiokhim” to recall and destroy batch No. 20 itself, then report back to Rosselkhoznadzor.
Why Rosselkhoznadzor ordered the destruction of only one batch of “Multikan” remains unclear. “Vetbiokhim” had already recalled four batches of the vaccine amid earlier reports of mass dog deaths following vaccination.
Dog deaths after vaccination with "Multikan"
Dog owners began speaking out in large numbers in mid-August about pets that died after being vaccinated with “Multikan-8,” saying at least 300 animals died across several Russian regions. Those affected asked lawmakers in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, to look into what happened.
No official figures on the number of dogs that died exist, and it’s unclear whether such statistics were ever compiled. Rosselkhoznadzor’s regional office and the prosecutor’s office in the Yaroslavl region, where the first reports of dog deaths surfaced, launched an inspection of “Vetbiokhim,” though no results have been announced.
Some of those affected (1, 2, 3) have linked the deaths to contamination of the “Multikan-8” vaccine with the virus that causes Aujeszky’s disease (pseudorabies), whose symptoms resemble those seen in the dogs that died. Unofficial testing of vaccine samples allegedly also detected the virus, according to those affected, but laboratories soon began refusing to run the tests, citing “pressure from above.”
“Vetbiokhim” claimed its own tests had found no contamination of the vaccine with the Aujeszky’s disease virus.
On September 10, Meduza reported that “Vetbiokhim” had drawn up settlement agreements with those affected. The company did not acknowledge any link between the dog deaths and the vaccine but offered to compensate the owners of animals that died. The agreements, however, required owners to waive any claims against “Vetbiokhim” and to stop discussing what happened to their animals in the media, on social media, or in messaging apps without the company’s consent.
“Multikan-8” is a vaccine that protects dogs against canine distemper, adenovirus infections, parvovirus and coronavirus enteritis, leptospirosis, and rabies.
Imported veterinary drugs, including rabies vaccines, largely vanished from the Russian market after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Western sanctions that followed, leaving veterinary clinics to rely mostly on Russian-made products.
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