Dozens of dogs in the Yaroslavl region died shortly after vaccination with the Russian complex drug Multikan-8. There are also isolated cases of death of domestic animals after this vaccination in other Russian regions. The vaccine manufacturer, Vetbiohim, announced that it is withdrawing from circulation the batch of Multikan-8, which may be associated with the death of pets, until all the circumstances are clarified. Experts point out that in the current conditions, pet owners have virtually no alternative.
Later, representatives of the Vetbiohim company announced the possible interference of certain “third parties” and called not to use three more series of their vaccines. Rosselkhoznadzor, in turn, announced its intention to contact the prosecutor’s office to conduct a joint inspection of Vetbiohim.
Since the end of last week, dog owners in the Yaroslavl region began to report en masse that their pets fell ill shortly after vaccination with the Russian drug Multikan-8. Many animals could not be saved.
There is no exact data on the number of dead and injured animals yet. As follows from regional media reports, we are talking about dozens of dead dogs in the Yaroslavl region alone. Cases of death of animals that were vaccinated were recorded in veterinary clinics in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Myshkin and Pereslavl-Zalessky.
There are also isolated cases of pet deaths after vaccination with Multican-8 in Kaliningrad, Moscow, Saratov, the Leningrad region, the Moscow region and Tyumen.
In the Yaroslavl region, all animal deaths that were registered followed vaccinations given from August 6 to August 15. The animals were vaccinated with the 20th series of Multikan-8 a few days before their condition worsened.
In the Yaroslavl region, the use of the 20th series of the drug was stopped on August 14. In total, about 100 animals have been vaccinated in the region since the beginning of August with this batch - in public and private veterinary clinics, as well as at field stations, regional publications report.
According to dog owners, the first symptoms in their pets appeared on the second to fourth day after vaccination. Their temperature rose, there was profuse salivation, and convulsions. The dogs whined and refused food and water. Many injured animals gnawed their paws at the injection site until they bled. Some experienced bloody vomiting and diarrhea.
“Two of my puppies died, rabies is questionable, the autopsy will only be done next week. They were vaccinated on August 11, a day before August 14, after symptoms: excessive drooling, paw gnawing, high fever, etc.,” a resident of Rybinsk said on social networks.
According to her, two more puppies that were also vaccinated with this vaccine did not experience similar symptoms and felt fine.
“08/16/2026 the dog (Kurtshar breed) began to gnaw out its paw at the injection site, the condition worsened before our eyes, we barely got to the veterinarian. They said it couldn’t be saved and they had to put him to sleep. But this terrible picture will haunt me for a long time, her crying and torment,” one of the dog owners shares her experience in a telegram.
Affected dog owners in the Yaroslavl region created a chat to share current information related to the death of their pets and its possible connection with vaccination. They believe that the deaths are associated with the 20th series of the Multikan-8 vaccine.
“Because of this vaccine, we lost our beloved boy... The pain is terrible, the feeling of guilt, we took him to death with our own hands,” writes one of the residents of the Yaroslavl region in the public “Overheard in Rybinsk” on the social network “VKontakte”.
Another resident of the region says that her dog died on the fourth day after vaccination. “We called a doctor to the house on the fourth day, he prescribed injections and antibiotics. After he left, the dog died an hour later,” she says.
Those owners whose dogs have just become ill continue to fight for their lives.
“I am looking for those to whom a miracle happened and who survived! Share your treatment regimen. I have a dog on IV drips in the hospital,” one resident of the Yaroslavl region asks for help.
At the same time, the owners of the dead dogs say that, according to veterinarians, there was almost no chance of saving the animals.
““Have you been vaccinated with Multivac 8?” We looked at the passport - yes, episode 20. The veterinarian replied: you are the fifth with such symptoms in a day (it was Saturday [August 15]), after us they brought two more with the same symptoms. We were openly told that the chances of saving are negligible,” continues the story of a telegram user whose pet died after vaccination.
Residents of the Yaroslavl region who lost their pets, citing the opinion of the veterinarians who treated their dogs, indicate that the symptoms were very similar to those of Aujeszky’s disease. There is no treatment for this disease for dogs: the animal dies within two days after the first symptoms appear.
Vetbiohim stated on August 18 that they do not consider the fact of vaccination to be a sufficient basis for establishing a connection between the use of the drug and deaths. At the same time, the company decided to withdraw the 20th series of the vaccine from circulation and conduct quality control.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, August 19, Vetbiohim asked veterinarians to temporarily not use not only the 20th series of the drug, but also the latest - 21st, as well as the 11th and 12th series of the Multikan-6 vaccine. The company said in a statement that this was due to suspicions of possible "organized destructive interference by hostile third parties."
Vetbiohim also emphasized that archival samples of the vaccine were prepared for examination, and the company’s specialists were sent to the Yaroslavl region, where most reports of dog deaths were received.
On Wednesday, August 19, after wide publicity in the media, Rosselkhoznadzor announced its intention to contact the prosecutor’s office to conduct a joint inspection of the Vetbiohim company, the Russian-language publication Forbes reported, citing the department’s press service.
At the same time, Rosselkhoznadzor noted that the agency did not receive requests from citizens with data on adverse reactions to the drug.
"Multikan-8" is a complex vaccine for dogs produced by the Vetbiohim company. It is intended for the prevention of plague, adenoviral infections, parvovirus and coronavirus enteritis, leptospirosis and rabies in pets. The manufacturer's website states that the vaccine contains killed and weakened live viruses.
The manufacturer recommends vaccinating puppies twice - at the age of 2-3 months and then at 10-12 months, adult dogs - once a year.
Many of those whose pets died or became ill after vaccination have already vaccinated their dogs with this vaccine more than once. According to them, no side effects had been observed before.
The Multikan-8 vaccine, as Vetbiohim emphasizes, has been produced since 1996. On average, the company sells more than 2 million doses of this drug per year.
Series 20 was produced in a volume of 60,000 doses and sold in more than 10 Russian regions, the company specified. “There have been no reports of adverse post-vaccination reactions from others,” the manufacturer emphasizes in a statement.
Vetbiohim added that in 2026, the last series of the vaccine released was series 21.
The manufacturer does not officially report any versions of what happened and a possible connection between the death of animals and vaccination - until “repeated quality control of series 20 and additional verification of the conditions of the production process are carried out.”
The company encourages animal owners to rely on verified facts and official reports and not to disseminate unconfirmed information.
However, the owners are trying to analyze what happened and put forward different versions. One of the first versions voiced by the affected dog owners is as follows: violation of the conditions of storage or transportation of the drug.
“There is now an active version that a violation of the cold chain is to blame: supposedly inactivated leptospires were destroyed, endotoxin was released from them, the adjuvant enhanced the reaction - then endotoxic shock, DIC [disseminated intravascular coagulation] and death. Sounds good. There is no evidence of this yet,” notes veterinary cardiologist and pulmonologist Natalya Sizikova in her telegram channel.
According to her, although Multikan-8 must be stored and transported at 2-8°C and violation of the temperature regime can indeed damage vaccines, one cannot say that “an overheated or frozen vaccine automatically turns into endotoxin poison.”
“The stability of vaccines is much more complex and depends on the specific composition and specific damage to the drug,” the specialist emphasizes.
The Yaroslavl Veterinary Center also rejected this version.
“The transportation was carried out in compliance with the temperature regime, which is confirmed by a checklist from automatic control equipment,” the publication 76.ru quotes a statement from the Veterinary Center.
The second version, which is expressed by the affected owners themselves, is this: a violation of production technology and possible contamination of the drug with the Aujeszky virus (false rabies). Owners of dead dogs note the similarity of their pets' symptoms with Aujeszky's symptoms: increased body temperature, an abundance of foamy saliva, loss of appetite. In particular, one of the important symptoms is itching at the site of introduction of the pathogen, which is why dogs could gnaw their own paw at the injection site. As a rule, the incubation period does not exceed five days from the moment of infection.
Proponents of this version believe that the vaccine could have been contaminated with this virus due to the use of contaminated pork trypsin (an enzyme that is synthesized in the animal’s pancreas) during the production of the drug, after which the vaccine, in their opinion, could not have been purified well enough at the filtration stage. Pigs are considered to be one of the main carriers of this virus, and porcine trypsin is indeed often used in the production of animal vaccines.
Participants in the discussion also believe that this could be cross-contamination, since the sites for the production of the Multikan-8 vaccine and the vaccine against Aujeszky's disease may be nearby.
There are a number of cases where serums were contaminated with any virus, including the Aujeszky's disease virus. Thus, in 2012, tens of thousands of sheep died in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan after the animals were vaccinated with a “sheep pox vaccine.” Later, the genome of the Aujeszky's disease virus was discovered in samples of the drug used. The packaging of the drug indicated that it was manufactured by the All-Russian Research Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Virology and Microbiology of the Russian Agricultural Academy. However, the research institute, after studying the submitted samples, stated that the drug used was not manufactured by the institute and was a counterfeit.
Veterinarians advise dog owners not to use the 20th series of the vaccine. And if the dog has recently been vaccinated with this series, carefully monitor its condition and, at the slightest sign of change, contact a veterinarian.
“Multikan-4” and “Multikan-6” from Vetbiohim are designed to protect against a smaller number of diseases - for example, they do not protect a pet from rabies. In this case, dog owners need to vaccinate their animal against rabies separately.
“The worst thing is that in most Russian regions, especially in the provinces, there is now no alternative to Multikan and Multifel (a similar drug for vaccinating cats - BBC). “Biocan” and even more so “Biofel,” according to the owners, cause a lot of complaints,” one of the dog owners describes the situation with the availability of drugs in a chat where the death of animals is discussed.
After 2022, imported veterinary drugs, including vaccines, gradually disappeared in Russia due to sanctions and the withdrawal of Western companies from the market. The outbreak of war and subsequent sanctions led to a breakdown in supply chains, and the delivery time for reagents increased from a couple of weeks to several months.
Some manufacturers have announced that they are stopping supplies of drugs to Russia. Thus, since the summer of 2022, official supplies of the Dutch anti-rabies vaccine Nobivac Rabies have ceased; in 2024, Rosselkhoznadzor canceled the state registration of this drug. Now all batches of this vaccine in Russia are considered counterfeit.
In addition, veterinarians note that due to the shortage of imported vaccines in Russia, there is a high risk of encountering counterfeit products. Therefore, experts recommend that owners, before vaccination, inquire about information about the vaccine batch, place and date of production, and use only certified drugs - Russian or legally imported imported ones.
