Poisoning of domestic animals : 2014 data from Poison Control Centre of Milan

Poisoning is a relative common occurrence in domestic animals as they may easily come into contact with a wide variety of possible toxicants especially within the home environment. In the present study, the data on animal poisoning collected by the Human Poison Control Centre of Milan (MPPC) from January 2014 to December 2014 were retrospectively analysed. For each enquiry received by MPCC, data such as animal characteristics (species/breed), causative agents, routes of exposure, clinical signs and therapy were registered in a standard report form and after a complete follow-up entered on to the MPCC database. In total, MPCC recorded 345 cases of animal poisoning involving primarily dogs (83.8%) and cats (13.9%). Enquiries related to other species were much fewer in comparison and involved cattle (0.9%), sheep (0.6%), horses (0.3%), rabbits (0.3%) and parrots (0.3%). The most common route of exposure was oral (90.7%) followed by cutaneous (2.6%). Pesticides were the primary cause of poisoning (33.6%) followed by household products (26.7%), drugs (22.9%), plants (9.3%), zootoxins (1.8%), foods (1.7%) and metals (1.4%). In the category of pesticides, insecticides were at the top of the list (39.7%) followed by rodenticides (26.7%), molluscicides (12.1%), herbicides (11.2%) and fungicides (10.3%). The outcome was reported in only 60.9% of cases and fatal poisoning accounted for 8.1% of these cases. The epidemiological data collected provide a general overview of the poisoning of domestic animals and can be used to determine trends and identify emerging toxicants.