304 Braz. J. vet. Res. anim. Sci., São Paulo, v. 44, n. 4, p. 304-309, 2007 Fatal poisoning in dogs and cats - A 6 - year report in a veterinary pathology service 1 - Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil Fabiana Galtarossa XAVIER 1 Dario Abbud RIGHI 1 Helenice de Souza SPINOSA 1 Corresponding author: Departamento de Patologia, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia da Universidade de São Paulo (FMVZ/ USP). Av. Prof. Dr. Orlando Marques de Paiva, 87, CEP 05508 -900 – São Paulo, SP. Tel.: 55 11 3081-7656; Fax: 55 11 3081-7829. E-mail: fgxavier@usp.br Recebido para publicação: 20/04/2006 Aprovado para publicação: 09/02/2007 Abstract A retrospective evaluation (1999 to 2004) of all 1,875 necropsies was performed at one Veterinary Pathology Service in Brazil with the aim of characterizing the cases of fatal poisonings in dogs and cats. During this period, 261 (13.9%) cases of dog or cat poisoning were identified. For all animals the exposures were of acute nature, caused by a single substance, occurred by ingestion and the most them were of intentional nature. The main agent was aldicarb responsible for 88.6% of the intoxications in dogs and 95.0% in cats. Other agents were anticoagulants (10.0% in dogs and 0.8% in cats), sodium monofluoracetate (1.4% in dogs) and no specified organic solvent (4.2% in cats). Key words: Poisoning. Aldicarb. Pesticides. Dogs. Cats. Introduction Pesticides are widely used in industry, agriculture and households. They can be classified according to their use (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides) or to their chemical family (organochlorine, organophosphorous, carbamates, pyrethroids, bipyridilium compounds, inorganic salts) and may be highly toxic to human beings and animals. The widespread and indiscriminate use of these products, especially in developing countries, has been a cause of concern 1 . Three million people are intoxicated by pesticides worldwide every year, resulting in more than 200,000 deaths 2 . Similarly, pesticides represent one of the most important causes of intoxication in animals 3,4 . However, there are few data on the incidence of animal poisoning in Brazil and the full extent of the problem is unknown. Data collected by the American Association of Poison Control Centers showed that the pesticides were the most common agents implicated in fatal poisoning (264 cases in 396 fatal exposures with a identified category of toxicant) 5 . In the same way, data from 10-year of chemical toxicological analyses carried out in a veterinary laboratory in Barcelona, Spain for 218 in 1,015,000 suspected wild and domestic animal poisonings found that insecticides (carbamates, organophosphates and organochlorine - 46.6%) and rodenticides (anticoagulants and strychnine - 37.9%) were the most frequently involved agents 4 . The National System of Toxicological and Pharmacological Information (SINITOX) 6 provides information about drugs and toxic agents as well as annual reports on occurrence of human intoxication in Brazil. Most recently, that institute is also reporting cases of intoxication in animals. The most recent report available (2003) mentions that 82,716 cases of human intoxication and only 1381 cases of animal intoxication occurred in Brazil. This certainly reflects the underestimation of animal intoxication, mainly when compared with studies done in other countries. Based on SINITOX reports, pesticides (for both domestic and agricultural use) are the main agents of intoxication in animals, followed by rodenticides, veterinary products and drugs. These proportions are comparable with the ones reported in other countries for both human and animal