A case of rabies has been confirmed in the village of Costuleni, Ungheni district. It is the third outbreak in the district in less than two weeks, after Rezina and Măgurele. On 11 August, the district’s crisis-management commission approved a plan of 14 anti-epizootic measures that change the rules in the village for at least a month: a census is taken of all animals in households, the movement of animals in the locality is halted, and the village’s animals are entered into an emergency vaccination campaign.
This is the village of Costuleni in the Ungheni district — not the village of the same name in the Ialoveni district. The decision and the plan of measures name the locality unambiguously: “the locality of Costuleni, Ungheni district” and “the Costuleni Commune Town Hall.”
What actually changes in the village
The plan was approved by Decision No. 1/E of 11 August, following request No. 530 of 10 August from the Territorial Subdivision for Food Safety for Ungheni/Nisporeni/Călărași, which confirmed the case. The measures felt directly in households are these:
- An official census of all categories of animals in every holding and household in Costuleni, with a deadline of five days. The Territorial Subdivision and the local public authorities are responsible.
- The movement of animals in the locality is halted, for 30 days, a task falling to the local public authorities.
- Emergency rabies vaccination of the village’s animals, within five days, provided by the Territorial Subdivision.
- Animals that had direct contact with the source of infection are placed under surveillance for 30 days.
- Stepped-up hunting of foxes and jackals in the locality’s hunting grounds, a task for the hunters’ and anglers’ society.
- Disinfection of the place where the sick animal was and of the equipment.
Oversight of the decision’s implementation falls to Tudor Orbu, head of the Territorial Subdivision for Food Safety for Ungheni/Nisporeni/Călărași. The investigation of the outbreak — with identification of the persons who had contact with the source of infection, its isolation and destruction — is carried out over a period of 30 days from the last recorded case.
The difference is not a nuance: the 30-day period runs from the last case, not from the date of the decision. If a new case appears in the village, the clock resets from the start.
A new commission, its first decision
Unlike the outbreaks in Rezina and Măgurele, where the measures had been approved by the district’s Emergency Situations Commission (decisions No. 10/E and No. 11/E), the act for Costuleni bears the number 1/E and is signed by the Territorial Crisis-Management Commission of the Ungheni district.
It is the first decision of this body, established under Law No. 248/2025 on crisis management and Government Decision No. 346/2026, which reorganises the old system of emergency-situations commissions into a national, regional, territorial and local crisis-management network. For the citizen, the change is one of name and legal framework; the mechanism remains the same — a district commission that, when the veterinary service confirms an outbreak, approves a plan of compulsory measures.
What the act does not say
Two things people ask about first have, for now, no public answer.
The species of the infected animal is not stated in the decision or in the plan of measures — as in Rezina and Măgurele, where the species (a dog, in Rezina) became public only later, in a bulletin of the National Food Safety Agency.
The decision and the plan of measures contain no information about persons bitten or exposed in Costuleni. The plan includes measures on “identifying the persons who had contact with the source of infection” and “treating the persons who had contact with the sick animal” — but these are standard measures, present in any outbreak plan, and their presence in the document does not mean anyone was bitten.
What to do if an animal bites you
The rules below are the same anywhere in the district, regardless of what happened in Costuleni.
Rabies cannot be treated once symptoms appear — but it can be prevented, if a person reaches a doctor quickly. Post-exposure prophylaxis is free in the Republic of Moldova, the National Agency for Public Health states.
For any bite, scratch or contact of a wound with an animal’s saliva, ANSP recommends immediate and thorough washing of the wound with running water and soap for at least 10–15 minutes — a measure that reduces the viral load but does not replace consultation and anti-rabies treatment. The plan approved for Costuleni provides for the same thing, through the family doctor:
If a person is bitten by an animal, they should urgently seek medical staff. Plan of anti-epizootic measures, approved by Decision No. 1/E of 11 August 2026
Treatment of the persons who had contact with a sick animal falls to the Ungheni Public Health Centre.
Why this is no surprise in Ungheni
Three outbreaks in two weeks in the same district may seem a lot, but they fit a trend that has been growing for two years. In 2025, the Ungheni district recorded four rabies cases in animals — in the list published by ANSP, right after Hîncești (ten cases) and level with Ialoveni, Dubăsari and Camenca. Nationally, 2025 was a year of steep growth: 46 cases across 18 territories, against 18 cases in eight territories in 2024 — 2.5 times more.
In the first six months of 2026, the country had already reached 53 cases in 17 districts and municipalities — more than in all of 2025. Ungheni does not appear in the list of districts with the most cases published by ANSP; how many cases the district had in this period is not a figure that has been published. In the same period, 4,036 people in the country were attacked by animals, of whom 1,800 in the municipality of Chișinău. Most of the attackers are dogs, and most rabies cases are confirmed in domestic animals — a sign, ANSP says, that the virus is circulating near settlements.
What actually concerns every household
Many of the measures in the plan merely recall obligations that exist permanently, regardless of an outbreak. Under the sanitary-veterinary rules, rabies vaccination of dogs and cats is compulsory — not only in the village under restrictions, but across the whole district. Any bite, scratch or contact of a wound with an animal’s saliva means a trip to the doctor the same day, and any animal with unusual behaviour must be reported to the veterinarian or to the Territorial Subdivision for Food Safety.
The fox remains the main reservoir of the virus in nature — which is why the plan provides, for Costuleni, for stepped-up hunting of foxes and jackals. For anyone keeping animals in the district, the rules now come down to three things: in Costuleni a census of animals is taken and their movement is halted until the restrictions are lifted, dogs and cats must be vaccinated against rabies anywhere in the district, and any bite means a trip to the doctor the same day.