Valdai Club

On August 18, the Valdai Club held an expert discussion, titled "Coronavirus for Animals: How to Avoid a New Pandemic?" The moderator was Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club. He posed questions to the participants about what happens to animals during a pandemic, and how this impacts the economy and humanitarian relations.

The discussion was opened by Nikita Lebedev, Advisor to the Head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance. In his speech, he mentioned the different levels of susceptibility of different animal species to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. He stressed that animals play a minimal role in the spread of coronavirus among people, but many species of animals are sick with COVID-19, and interspecies transmission is possible. This means both that it has the potential to damage to the animal population in the wild, and that there’s a likelihood of the reverse introduction of the virus into the human population. To control the spread of the virus, it is possible to use an animal vaccine that has already been registered in the Russian Federation.

Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Liaison Office with the Russian Federation (FAO), spoke about the system of international cooperation in the field of veterinary medicine and animal health. He noted that the global health system as a whole is based on the "One world, one health" principle, indicating the close relationship between wildlife, livestock, domestic animals and humans. “In fact, over 80% of recent infections, and infections which had devastating consequences, originated in the wild,” he said. Speaking about the food safety area directly related to FAO's competence, Kobiakov said that the vast majority of farm animals are either not susceptible at all or almost not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Fish and poultry also can’t be infected with the virus, even artificially.

Sergei Pozyabin, Rector of the K. I. Scriabin Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, answering the main question of the discussion, stressed that although it is possible to avoid a new epidemic, it is impossible to avoid the emergence of new pathogenic viruses that are dangerous for both humans and animals, and the task of specialists is to be ready for the appearance of such a virus. Also in his speech, he spoke about the new programmes of the Veterinary Academy aimed at training personnel to withstand future pandemics.

Alexander Butenko, head of the department of arboviruses and laboratory of biology and the indication of arboviruses at the Gamaleya Federal Research Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology, cited comparative data on three pandemics of beta-coronavirus infections - SARS CoV-1 of 2002, which began with the use of poorly roasted civet meat, MERS CoV 2012, in which the sources of infection were camels and bats, and SARS- CoV-2 2019 - which led to economic losses. He noted that in addition to this, a number of zoonotic viruses dangerous to humans have recently been discovered in the world. This indicates the need to monitor the emergence of new viral agents. In Russia, at the beginning of 2021, a programme was launched to organise a research system to cover this issue.