New Web site gathers pesticide incidents involving animals

The National Pesticide Information Center has developed a Web site for veterinarians to report pesticide incidents involving animals.

The Web site is for the use of veterinarians only. It can be accessed through a link on the AVMA Web site (www.avma.org) under the Animal Health Section by clicking on "Adverse event reporting."

The reporting site was developed by the NPIC with input from the AVMA Clinical Practitioners Advisory Committee and the AVMA Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents.

The site was designed to capture the optimal amount of relevant information while providing a form that is quick for busy practitioners to fill out. Several pieces of information are required, the most important of which is identification of the pesticide product, preferably by the Environmental Protection Agency registration number located on the label. If the registration number is not available, the veterinarian may enter the product name and active ingredient.

The data will be evaluated by the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs. Most of the reports of more severe pesticide-induced incidents the agency receives are neurologic or dermatologic in nature. The reports vary in quality and in information reported. It is expected that reports received from veterinarians will help to better characterize the incident reports presently received by the EPA.

Reports generated from this new data base will also be provided to the AVMA.