The vaccine trial comes after four reports of pet infections within the same week in both Italy and Mexico.

Russia’s state veterinary service is now the world’s first ever regulator to approve a Covid-19 for animals, The Moscow Times reported on Wednesday.

According to the Russian paper, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance [Rosselkhoznadzor] said that Carnivac-Cov medical trials were conducted on dogs, cats, mink and several other animals in October, with production set to be launched as early as April.

“The results allow us to conclude that the vaccine is harmless and has high immunogenicity, since all tested animals developed coronavirus antibodies in 100% of cases,” Rosselkhoznadzor’s deputy head Konstantin Savenkov said in a statement, adding that it is still looking into its long-term efficacy.

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The vaccine ‘Karnivak-Kov’ was created to prevent the spread or mutation of the virus from animals to humans, especially after infections linked to mink farms were reported last year.

Four reports of pet infections were reported in Italy and Mexico over the past week, the agency said, calling for a need to provide immunisation among animals.

“Russian scientists believe that the vaccine’s use can prevent the virus from mutating, which most often occurs during interspecies transmission,”said Savenkov.

On Monday, the World Health Organization [WHO] revealed that while there were no cases of pet-to-human infections, it is still “likely to very likely” that the virus initially spread from bats.

 “We should be prepared to prevent a situation rather than deal with it later if it takes a negative turn,” said Savenkov.