Animal Adverse-Event Report Trends, 2010–2025

Year-by-year FDA CVM adverse-event and death-coded report trends from 2010 to 2025 (complete years), with 2026 shown separately as a partial year.

Research question

How have total adverse-event reports and reported deaths evolved year over year from 2010 to 2025, and how large is the dog share of each year's reports?

Methodology

We grouped every record in the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) adverse-event extract by report year and summed total reports and death-coded reports per year. Per-species counts come from each year's stored species breakdown. Window totals below use COMPLETE years only (2010–2025); a trailing year under half the prior year's volume is treated as PARTIAL and disclosed separately so a filling tip cannot drag the period total. No figures are estimated or modelled.

What the yearly counts show

Across the complete 2010–2025 window, the FDA CVM database holds 1,074,455 animal adverse-event reports, of which 54,284 (5.1%) were death-coded. Annual report volume peaked in 2024 at 79,313 reports. 2026 is still filling in (11,368 reports and 493 death-coded so far in this extract) and is excluded from the period totals above so a partial tip cannot understate the complete-year sum.

Dogs are the single largest species in the data every year: they accounted for 31,366 of 42,861 reports in 2010 and 50,359 of 72,303 in 2025. Cats are a distant second and have grown noticeably in the most recent complete years. Because these are voluntary filings, the rise and fall of the lines below tracks how actively owners and veterinarians reported, not a measured change in how often animals were actually harmed.

Total adverse-event reports, 2010–2026

FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database, reports per year

201042861201150740201268338201368742201467827201570664201673804201777983201871028201972435202068200202163115
Total reports per year (FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database)

Death-coded reports, 2010–2026

FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database, reports recording a death outcome

201028012011299120123390201331972014313620153312201633032017348520183353201934072020299220212840
Death-coded reports per year (FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database)

Dog reports, 2010–2026

FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database, reports involving dogs per year

201031366201139359201252387201352091201452105201554634201656832201758981201852763201952655202050663202147350
Dog reports per year (FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database)

What this analysis cannot tell us

These are voluntary, unverified reports, so year-to-year movement reflects reporting behaviour and channel maturity as much as any real change in animal health. Early years likely undercount because online submission was less common, and the most recent year is typically partial (reports continue to arrive after the extract date). Counts are not normalised for the animal population, so they cannot be read as risk rates.

Related data

Source

  • FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, Animal & Veterinary Adverse Events (openFDA) - open.fda.gov (July 2026 extract)

According to the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine openFDA Animal & Veterinary Adverse Event extract, every figure on this page is rendered from that public file; no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on FDA openFDA data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.