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Human exposures due to animals and exotic pets reported to the poison information centre Erfurt from 2013 to 2022
Jennifer Wessling1, Dagmar Prasa2, Michael Deters2
1ECM - Certification Company for Medical Devices in Europe mbH, Aachen, Germany.
Introduction:
In Germany, human exposures to animals are rare in comparison to those caused by drugs, chemicals, and plants. We aimed to characterize human exposures to animals and exotic pets, including the age group and sex of the involved person, symptom severity, management, the identity of the individual calling the Poisons Information Centre Erfurt, and the place of exposure.
Methods:
All human exposures involving animals and exotic pets referred to the Poisons Information Centre Erfurt from 2013 to 2022 were retrospectively analysed.
Results:
There were 1,799 human exposures to animals between 2013 and 2022, of which 62.8% were symptomatic. Children (n = 655) were involved in 36.4% of cases. The proportion of males (n = 892, 49.6%) exposed to animals was higher than that of females. Exposures to animals increased from 132 in 2013 to 221 in 2022. Between 2013 and 2022, there were 158 exposures to exotic pets, mainly aquatic species (n = 89), of which 63.9% were symptomatic. There were between seven to 22 human exposures to exotic pets per year (mean 15.8 per year). Severe symptoms occurred after exposures to Vipera berus (n = 4) and Crotalus spp. (n = 2). Severe anaphylaxis was observed after stings of Vespa crabro (n = 2), Vespula/Dolichovespula (n = 1), and Insecta spp. unknown (n = 1). A bite of Cheiracanthium spp. (n = 1) resulted in secondary infection. No fatality occurred.
Discussion:
The low proportion (0.7%) of human exposures to animals (n = 1,799) compared to all human exposures in our study (n = 259,679) can be explained by the lack of highly venomous animals in Germany.
Conclusions:
Exposures to animals reported to the Poisons Information Centre Erfurt slightly increased from 2013 to 2022, while exposures to exotic pets (mostly aquatic species) stayed at a low level.
