Investigators in Moscow have opened a criminal case over the use of a forged quality certificate for the canine vaccine Multican-8 following the deaths of 300 pets across Russia.
The Moscow prosecutor's office told Lenta.ru that a private manufacturing company uploaded a falsified document confirming product quality into an electronic information system when introducing the veterinary drug into circulation.
Law enforcement authorities opened the criminal case under Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which governs the forgery, manufacture, and distribution of falsified official documents.
Veterinary watchdog orders destruction of vaccine batch
The criminal investigation follows emergency regulatory action taken by Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian federal service for veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance, which demanded the destruction of the 20th production batch of Multican-8 on September 16.
Rosselkhoznadzor issued the destruction order after receiving mass complaints from dog owners nationwide who identified the vaccine batch as the direct cause of death for their pets.
Public reports of an official prosecutorial check into the vaccine filings first surfaced on September 22 after preliminary reviews confirmed discrepancies in the electronic documentation.
Overall, the number of domestic animals affected by the compromised vaccine batch reached 300, prompting legal action against the private supplier responsible for entering the fake quality records into the electronic registry.
National regulatory framework and canine healthcare
Multican-8 is a multi-purpose polyvalent vaccine widely administered by veterinary clinics throughout Russia to protect dogs against major canine viral illnesses, including rabies, enteritis, infectious hepatitis, and distemper.
Under Russian veterinary safety regulations, pharmaceutical companies must submit verified quality passports issued by authorized testing laboratories into state digital tracking systems before releasing any vaccine batch to commercial suppliers or veterinary clinics.
Operating under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Rosselkhoznadzor serves as the central regulatory body for animal pharmaceuticals, maintaining authority to inspect manufacturing data, suspend product distribution, and mandate the destruction of non-compliant or hazardous veterinary products.
Article 327 of the Russian Criminal Code establishes severe legal penalties for submitting fraudulent documents to official systems, ranging from substantial financial fines to compulsory labor or imprisonment, as Moscow investigators continue their inquiries into the falsified filings.
