AI Makes Veterinary Document Oversight More Effective
The Kursk and Oryol regional office of Rosselkhoznadzor (Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision) is using artificial intelligence to identify violations in the issuance and closure of electronic veterinary accompanying documents.
One of the tasks Rosselkhoznadzor faces today is monitoring compliance with the requirements of the Merkuriy (Mercury) state information system, which was created to manage electronic veterinary accompanying documents (eVADs). Merkuriy is part of the Federal State Information System in the Field of Veterinary Medicine, or FGIS VetIS, a centralized digital platform designed to automate recordkeeping, oversight and data exchange across Russia’s veterinary sector. Electronic VADs create a unified information environment that makes it possible to track every stage in the domestic circulation of animal-origin products. Given the scale of the industry and the number of transactions, the system generates an enormous volume of documents. Artificial intelligence helps process that information.
Smarter Violation Detection
From May 12 through Aug. 12, 2026, Rosselkhoznadzor inspectors identified 87,700 violations in the issuance and closure of eVADs in the Oryol and Kursk regions. Since the beginning of the year, a total of 444,300 violation records have been confirmed.
AI systems used by agency staff helped check the documents online and identify violations. In this case, two dedicated modules are used. One checks whether the volume and type of transported products match the vehicle’s capacity or type. The other flags cases in which a transport veterinary accompanying document was not closed within the required time – 24 hours after the vehicle arrived. These AI programs check whether product transportation is logically consistent and identify two types of violations: cases in which the stated volume and type of cargo do not match the capacity or type of vehicle, and failures to close veterinary documents within the required time.
Overall, the AI subsystems include models designed to identify 30 types of violations. These include discrepancies between raw-material volumes and finished-product output, illogical movements of goods, fictitious production chains created to inflate product volumes at successive stages, phantom facilities and other irregularities. AI also evaluates the timing of production operations, flagging implausible cases and sending them to Rosselkhoznadzor professionals for analysis.
Expanding AI-Powered Oversight
Today, Rosselkhoznadzor and Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture view the unified digital environment encompassing their information systems and data as a key tool for identifying violations and developing a comprehensive set of preventive measures.
Just four years ago, in 2022, when VetIS had only recently been launched, monitoring teams could process just 0.02% of all documents generated by more than 3.2 million businesses across the country. Before AI was introduced, approximately 2,020 violations per month resulted in administrative and preventive documents; after its introduction, that figure exceeded 334,000. The effectiveness of enforcement measures increased 165-fold. Hiding violations from Rosselkhoznadzor has now become virtually impossible.
Every year, users process 5 billion electronic veterinary accompanying documents through FGIS VetIS, the veterinary oversight information platform developed by the Service; 6.4 million phytosanitary certificates through FGIS Argus-Fito; and 10.7 million digital records on pesticides and agrochemicals through FGIS Saturn. This enormous body of information is analyzed by 36 artificial intelligence models and 54 analytical modules.
At Rosselkhoznadzor’s annual review board meeting on April 2, 2026, agency head Sergey Dankvert said the digitization of oversight had reduced the number of scheduled business inspections tenfold, easing the regulatory burden on companies, while the effectiveness of oversight measures increased from 48% to 86%.
Supporting Compliant Businesses
Reducing the regulatory burden on legitimate producers through an objective digital oversight system, while maintaining strict scrutiny of violators through AI analytics and digital violation indicators, supports the growth of compliant businesses. Reducing the volume of falsified and counterfeit products helps bring more economic activity into the legitimate market and encourages fair competition.
End-to-end traceability across every stage of production, together with transparent transportation and sales, improves product quality, giving Russian producers a competitive advantage in international markets. Russia currently uses electronic veterinary certification in trade with more than 50 countries. Future integration of digital oversight systems will simplify trade flows and create more opportunities for legitimate businesses to grow.
