Companion animal exposures to potentially poisonous substances reported to a national poison control center in the United States in 2005 through 2014

Geographic Variability, Seasonality, and Increase in ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center Harmful Blue-Green Algae Calls-United States and Canada, 2010-2022

Harmful cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) exposures can cause illness or death in humans and animals. We characterized American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) harmful blue-green algae (HBGA) call data, compared it to a measure of harmful algal bloom public awareness, and considered its suitability as a public health information source. ASPCA APCC dog and cat "HBGA exposure" calls made 1 January 2010-31 December 2022 were included. We calculated annual HBGA call percentages and described calls (species, month, origin, exposure route). We characterized public awareness by quantifying Nexis Uni® (LexisNexis Academic; New York, NY, USA)-indexed news publications (2010-2022) pertaining to "harmful algal bloom(s)". Call percentage increased annually, from 0.005% (2010) to 0.070% (2022). Of 999 HBGA calls, 99.4% (n = 993) were dog exposures. Over 65% (n = 655) of calls were made July-September, largely from the New England (n = 154 (15.4%)) and Pacific (n = 129 (12.9.%)) geographic divisions. Oral and dermal exposures predominated (n = 956 (95.7%)). Harmful algal bloom news publications increased overall, peaking in 2019 (n = 1834). Higher call volumes in summer and in the New England and Pacific geographic divisions drove HBGA call increases; public awareness might have contributed. Dogs and humans have similar exposure routes. ASPCA APCC HBGA call data could serve as a public health information source.

Comparing the diagnostic performance of ordinary, mixed, and lasso logistic regression models at identifying opioid and cannabinoid poisoning in U.S. dogs using pet demographic and clinical data reported to an animal poison control center (2005-2014)

Researchers have begun studying the impact of human opioid and cannabinoid use on dog populations. These studies have used data from an animal poison control center (APCC) and there are concerns that due to the illicit nature and social stigma concerning the use of these drugs, owners may not always be forthcoming with veterinarians or APCC staff regarding pet exposures to these toxicants. As a result, models derived from APCC data that examine the predictability of opioid and cannabinoid dog poisonings using pet demographic and health disorder information may help veterinarians or APCC staff more reliably identify these toxicants when examining or responding to a call concerning a dog poisoned by an unknown toxicant. The fitting of epidemiologically informed statistical models has been useful for identifying factors associated with various health conditions and as predictive tools. However, machine learning, including lasso regression, has many useful features as predictive tools, including the ability to incorporate large numbers of independent variables. Consequently, the objectives of our study were: 1) identify pet demographic and health disorders associated with opioid and cannabinoid dog poisonings using ordinary and mixed logistic regression models; and 2) compare the predictive performance of these models to analogous lasso logistic regression models. Data were obtained from reports of dog poisoning events collected by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' (ASPCA) Animal Poisoning Control Center, from 2005-2014. We used ordinary and mixed logistic regression models as well as lasso logistic regression models with and without controlling for autocorrelation at the state level to train our models on half the dataset and test their predictive performance on the remainder. Although epidemiologically informed logistic regression models may require substantial knowledge of the disease systems being investigated, they had the same predictive abilities as lasso logistic regression models. All models had relatively high predictive parameters except for positive predictive values, due to the rare nature of calls concerning opioid and cannabinoid poisonings. Ordinary and mixed logistic regression models were also substantially more parsimonious than their lasso equivalents while still allowing for the epidemiological interpretation of model coefficients. Controlling for autocorrelation had little effect on the predictive performance of all models, but it did reduce the number of variables included in lasso models. Several disorder variables were associated with opioid and cannabinoid calls that were consistent with the acute effects of these toxicants. These models may help build diagnostic evidence concerning dog exposure to opioids and cannabinoids, saving time and resources when investigating these cases.

Investigating the distribution of calls to a North American animal poison control call center by veterinarians and the public in space, time, and space-time

Health assessments via phone call or tele-triage have become very popular. Tele-triage in the veterinary field and North American context is available since the early 2000s. However, there is little knowledge of how caller type influences the distribution of calls. The objectives of this study were to examine the distribution of calls to the Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) by caller type in space, time, and space-time. Data regarding caller location were obtained from the APCC by American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The data were analysed using the spatial scan statistic to identify clusters of higher-than-expected proportion of veterinarian or public calls in space, time, and space-time. Statistically significant spatial clusters of increased call frequencies by veterinarians were identified in some western, midwestern, and southwestern states for each year of the study period. Furthermore, annual clusters of increased call frequencies by the general public were identified from some northeastern states. Based on yearly scans, we identified statistically significant temporal clusters of higher-than-expected public calls during Christmas/winter holidays. During space-time scans of the entire study period, we identified a statistically significant cluster of higher-than-expected proportion of veterinarian calls at the beginning of the study period in the western, central, and southeastern states followed by a significant cluster of excess public calls near the end of the study period on the northeast. Our results suggest that user patterns of the APCC vary by region and both season and calendar time.

Intoxication of dogs and cats with common stimulating, hallucinogenic and dissociative recreational drugs

Pets can have accidental, intentional, or malicious exposure to illicit drugs. It is a growing concern over the last decade because there is an increase in usage of illicit drugs in humans and diagnosis is difficult. Owners are often not aware of exposure, or they are reluctant to admit possession of recreational drugs in the household due to potential legal consequences. In addition, illicit drugs sold on the black market are often adulterated with other substances resulting in non-specific clinical presentation and aggravation of symptoms. There are affordable onsite diagnostic tests on the market which could facilitate diagnosis of intoxication with illicit drugs, but they give a lot of false positive results due to low specificity of the tests. In this paper we gathered information about the most common recreational drugs such as amphetamines, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), phencyclidine (PCP), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin mushrooms and cocaine in terms of toxicokinetic properties, mechanism of toxic action, clinical presentation and treatment in dogs and cats.

Can North American animal poison control center call data provide early warning of outbreaks associated with contaminated pet food? Using the 2007 melamine pet food contamination incident as a case study

The 2007 melamine pet food contamination incident highlighted the need for enhanced reporting of toxicological exposures and development of a national quantitative disease surveillance system for companion animals. Data from poison control centers, such as the Animal Poison Control Center (APCC), may be useful for conducting real-time surveillance in this population. In this study, we explored the suitability of APCC call data for early warning of toxicological incidents in companion animal populations by using a-priori knowledge of the melamine-related nephrotoxicosis outbreak. Patient and household-level information regarding possible toxicological exposures in dogs and cats reported to the APCC from 2005 to 2007, inclusive, were extracted from the APCC's AnTox database. These data were used to examine the impact of surveillance outcome, statistical methodology, analysis level, and call source on the ability to detect the outbreak prior to the voluntary recall issued by the pet food manufacturer. Retrospective Poisson temporal scan tests were applied for each combination of outcome, method, level, and call source. The results showed that month-adjusted scans using syndromic data may have been able to help detect the outbreak up to two months prior to the voluntary recall although the success of these methods varied across call sources. We also demonstrated covariate month-adjustment can lead to vastly different results based on the surveillance outcome and call source to which it is applied. This illustrates care should be taken prior to arbitrarily selecting a surveillance outcome and statistical model for surveillance efforts and warns against ignoring the impacts of call source or key covariates when applying quantitative surveillance methods to APCC call data since these factors can lead to very different results. This study provides further evidence that APCC call data may be useful for conducting surveillance in the US companion animal population and further exploratory analyses and validation studies are warranted.

Examining the differential use of a North American animal poison control call center by veterinarians and the public for dog-related calls

Tele-triage, a subset of telehealth services, is becoming increasingly common, they offer users the ability to receive credible health advice from licensed professionals in the comfort of their own home. In the field of veterinary medicine, tele-triage services have been employed since the early 2000s, but there has been little examination of how these services are used by callers. The objectives of this study were to explore how the use of an animal poison control center (APCC) tele-triage service varied between veterinarians and the public in terms of toxicant type, animal demographics, availability of veterinary services, as well as seasonal and secular trends. Data regarding dog poisoning events were obtained from the APCC of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ (ASPCA). We fitted a mixed logistic regression model with random intercepts for county and state and identified associations between caller type and the following: animal characteristics (i.e., age, weight, breed-class), type of toxicant, season, year, and access to veterinary services (i.e., veterinarians per capita in the county of the caller). The model included interaction effects between season and both plant and pesticide toxicants. There was also an interaction between year and access to veterinary care. Further investigations are needed to understand how the novelty of a toxicant and the severity of clinical signs associated with a toxicant predict the type of caller, if pet demographics are associated with the caller based on medical issues or owner attitudes, and how access to veterinary care influences the use of this tele-triage service.

Topical Minoxidil Exposures and Toxicoses in Dogs and Cats: 211 Cases (2001-2019)

Topical minoxidil is a medication for hair loss, initially available in the United States by prescription only and available since 1996 as an over-the-counter product. To determine the epidemiology of minoxidil exposures and toxicoses in dogs and cats, 211 dog and cat cases with topical minoxidil exposure were identified from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Animal Poison Control Center database. In 87 cases with clinical signs of toxicosis (62 cats, 25 dogs), case narratives were reviewed and coded for exposure-related circumstances. Unintentional delivery, especially while pet owners applied minoxidil for his/her own hair loss (e.g., pet licked owner's skin or pillowcase, pet was splashed during a medication spill), was the most common cat exposure circumstance. Exploratory behavior (e.g., searching through trash) was the most common dog exposure circumstance. Clinical signs occurred in dogs and cats even with low exposure amounts, such as drops or licks. In patients that developed clinical signs, most developed moderate or major illness (56.0% dogs, 59.7% cats). Death occurred in 8/62 (12.9%) cats that developed clinical signs after the pet owner's minoxidil use. Pet owners should be educated on the risk of dog and cat toxicosis from accidental minoxidil exposure.