Surveillance of a vomiting outbreak in dogs in the UK using owner-derived and internet search data

In early 2020, the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network reported evidence of an outbreak of acute prolific vomiting in dogs in the UK. The aims of this study were to investigate whether there was evidence for a vomiting outbreak in Dogslife and Google Trends data and to describe its characteristics.

Incidence of Dogslife vomiting reports and the Google search index for 'dog vomiting' and 'puppy vomiting' between December 2019 and March 2020 was compared to the respective data from the same months in previous years. Risks for dogs vomiting and factors influencing veterinary attendance in Dogslife were identified using multivariable logistic regression.

This study confirmed a vomiting outbreak was evident in UK dogs between December 2019 and March 2020 using data from Dogslife and Google Trends. The odds of a vomiting incident being reported to Dogslife was 1.51 (95% CI: 1.24-1.84) in comparison to previous years. Dogslife data identified differences in owner-decision making when seeking veterinary attention and identified factors associated with dogs at higher odds of experiencing a vomiting episode.

Owner-derived data including questionnaires and internet search queries should be considered a valid, valuable source of information for veterinary population health surveillance.