Doctors told whether pets should be vaccinated against COVID-19

Now there is no need to vaccinate pets, Denis Kolbasov, director of the Federal Research Center for Virology and Microbiology, told RBC. According to him, animal vaccination has been started only in Russia, and there are no international recommendations for its implementation.

“After the situation with minks in Europe, the risk of human infection was analyzed, and it was found that vaccination is not advisable at this stage,” Kolbasov said. He added that the authorities should regulate the conditions for the use of the vaccine, but so far there are no relevant documents in Russia.

According to Mikhail Shelyakov, a veterinarian of the highest qualification category, animal vaccination is “a rather useless event,” since there is no reliable data on the transmission of the virus from animals to humans.

“We have known about coronavirus infections in animals for a long time, and they have never been classified as dangerous. According to various sources, from 80 to 100% of cats are carriers of coronavirus, and this does not lead to the extinction of the species, and most often it is asymptomatic, ”he said in a conversation with RBC.

Shelyakov noted that the animal can literally carry the virus on itself without being infected. “Let's imagine a situation where a sick person spat, <...> a dog stepped into saliva, into a biological fluid, then itched, and you stroked it - here you are, you got infected from an animal, but simply because it, like on the train, the virus has moved, ”he gave an example.