[Possibilities of epidemiological studies via automated veterinary practice administration]

This study of the occurrence of tumours in dogs was carried out in order to see whether veterinary medical records can be used for epidemiological research. The relationship between tumour occurrence and breed, sex, and age was investigated by using the electronic tumourcards for 16049 dogs from three veterinary practices. Striking results include the difference in tumour occurrence between sprayed bitches (11.31%) and intact bitches (6.58%), and the high percentage of mongrels with a tumour (78.15%). Such unexpected results may be the result of selection processes underlying the composition of the population. Because these registers do not use a standard diagnostic classification system, it is difficult to identify all dogs with a specific diagnosis. This means that registers cannot be used for aetiological epidemiological research. However, they do contain valuable information for veterinary health care research and can be used as a source of cases for case-control studies, provided that a suitable mans of standardization is used.