The National Food Safety Agency (ANSA) is running, between 20 October and 2 November 2026, its second rabies vaccination campaign this year for wild foxes. The vaccine baits are laid by hand by the agency’s veterinarians, together with forestry enterprises and the Society of Hunters and Fishermen of Moldova.
For Ungheni district, the campaign follows a summer with three rabies outbreaks in less than two weeks, in Rezina, Măgurele and Costuleni. In the action plans approved at the time, the district commission also called for stepped-up hunting of foxes and jackals, the virus’s main reservoir in nature.
What to do if you find a bait
ANSA asks people to follow three rules:
- an intact bait, in a place without children or pets, is left where it was found;
- a bait in a place frequented by children or pets is moved, with gloves and a plastic bag, to a wooded area;
- a bait with opened, torn or damaged packaging is not touched directly: use gloves and a bag, and notify a veterinarian so it can be collected.
Dogs and cats should not roam freely for two weeks
For two weeks after the baits are laid, the agency recommends that dogs and cats not roam freely in vaccinated areas. Pets can compete with foxes for the baits, and the measure reduces the risk that they eat them.
The vaccine is not intended for pets. If a dog or cat does eat a bait, ANSA says studies have shown the vaccine does not harm them. For dogs and cats, rabies vaccination by a veterinarian remains mandatory under the sanitary-veterinary norm approved by Government Decision No. 174/2023.
Where the baits are laid
Neither the ANSA statement nor the agency’s Facebook post lists the districts, forests or hunting grounds where the baits are distributed. As of 21 October, the areas of Ungheni district included in the campaign had not been made public in the agency’s announcements. The baits are laid by ANSA veterinarians together with forestry enterprises and hunters.
According to the agency, 96 rabies outbreaks have been recorded in the Republic of Moldova in 2026, of which 18 in wild animals. The rabies eradication programme is co-financed by the European Union and aims for Moldova to obtain rabies-free status.