MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/: Poland is interested in importing a coronavirus vaccine for animals and corresponding diagnostic kits from Russia, the Russian agricultural watchdog said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Poland's interest in importing the Russian vaccine Carnivac-Cov, developed to protect animals from the new coronavirus infection, and the corresponding diagnostic kits, was voiced on May 24 during the talks the Polish side initiated with the Rosselkhoznadzor (Russian agricultural watchdog - TASS)," according to the statement.
According to the watchdog, during the negotiations, President of the Polish Fur Industry Szczepan Wojcik noted that Poland is one of the largest producers of furs in the world. Today, the country's fur farms house about 6 mln minks and in a year the total number of fur-bearing animals will be 11 mln.
To protect the most important market segment for the Polish agricultural sector from the risks associated with the spread of the new coronavirus infection COVID-19, the Polish business community is interested in the prompt import of the Russian vaccine Carnivac-Cov and is ready to provide maximum assistance for its prompt registration. A corresponding request will be sent to the Polish Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Grzegorz Puda in the near future.
The Russian Trade Representative in Poland, Vladimir Nefedov, noted that his mission will also provide full support to this work. At the same time, he stressed that Poland could become not only the first European country to use the Russian drug, but also the "gateway" for promoting the vaccine to the single market of the European Union. At the meeting the Polish side expressed its intention to conduct a wide-ranging diagnosis of fur animals in the country's animal farms using the diagnostic kits developed by the scientists of Russian agricultural watchdog a year ago to identify the causative agent of COVID-19.
Representatives of the Federal Center for Animal Health said that they are ready for fruitful cooperation and asked for a description of the procedure for registering vaccines for animals in Poland. The Russian Institute invited representatives of the Eastern European country to visit the institution and get acquainted with the production facilities and technologies used. Yulia Melano, advisor to the head of the Russian agricultural watchdog, supported the initiative of the Polish side in organizing a joint international scientific conference this autumn in order to popularize knowledge about the risks of infecting animals with a new coronavirus infection and how to protect them.
About vaccine
On April 30, Melano announced that the Russian agricultural watchdog’s research institute had launched the production of a coronavirus vaccine for animals, named Carnivac-Cov.
She said that the maximum production volume could be 3 million doses per month. The batch of the produced vaccine was sent to Moscow, the Moscow region, the Republic of Crimea, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Kirov, Izhevsk, Irkutsk, Magnitogorsk, Novosibirsk, Ryazan, Chelyabinsk, Tver, Togliatti.
The advisor to the watchdog's chief also said that the agency was preparing the registration of a vaccine against COVID-19 for animals in the EU.
