Epidemiology of intraspecies bite wounds in dogs in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The epidemiology of bite wounds in dogs that resulted from intraspecies conflicts and were treated at the Small Animal Clinic, Department of Surgery and Orthopedics, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Brno was evaluated from 246 records in 1989-90 and 337 records in 1998-99. The number of bite incidents fluctuated during the year. The majority of incidents occurred in summer months, i.e. in the second (n = 149) and third (n = 193) trimester of the year. In comparison, only 119 and 122 bite victims were treated in winter months, i.e. in the first and fourth trimester, respectively. The total number of bite victims increased (p < 0.01) between the first and the second period under study. Most treated dogs belonged to small (37.9%), and large (24.8%) breeds, followed by medium-sized (19.0%), giant (11%) and toy breeds (7.3%). A high proportion of the victims were 1 year (11.4%) and 2 years (15.6%) of age, and the proportion decreased with age down to 1% at 11 years. Also, there were indicators for a sex effect. Of the 571 cases where the dog's sex was recorded 176 concerned a female (30.3%) and 405 (69.7%) a male. For 503 dogs the positions of the wounds were recorded. A large portion of the wounds was administered to the thorax (26.6%) and head (24.30%), i.e. the frontal body parts. More than one fourth of all head wounds were in the relatively small areas around the eyes (28.7%). Fewer bites were on the limbs (17.7%), neck (17.3%) and in the abdominal regions (14.3%). These data suggest that for dogs the risk of being wounded by a conspecific differs between seasons and depends on a dog's age, sex and body size.