Animal Adverse-Event Report Trends, 2010–2025

How FDA CVM animal adverse-event reports and reported deaths changed year by year from 2010 to 2025 - 1,048,915 reports and 52,712 death-coded reports in total.

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. No figures are estimated or modelled, every number on this page is a direct count from the same dataset that powers the breed, drug, and reaction pages.

What the yearly counts show

Across the full 2010–2025 window, the FDA CVM database holds 1,048,915 animal adverse-event reports, of which 52,712 (5.0%) were death-coded. Annual report volume peaked in 2024 at 78,511 reports. The 2025 figure (48,041) is lower than the peak largely because the most recent year is still filling in, reports for a given year keep arriving for months after it ends.

Dogs are the single largest species in the data every year: they accounted for 31,364 of 42,859 reports in 2010 and 34,079 of 48,041 in 2025. Cats are a distant second and have grown noticeably in the most recent 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, 2010–2025

FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database, reports per year

201042859201150739201268336201368740201467824201570660201673796201777978201871015201972419202068159202163062
Total reports per year (FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database)

Death-coded reports, 2010–2025

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

201028012011299120123390201331972014313620153311201633022017348220183353201934042020298520212835
Death-coded reports per year (FDA CVM Animal Adverse Event database)

Dog reports, 2010–2025

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

201031364201139358201252385201352090201452102201554632201656826201758977201852754201952641202050634202147304
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

Every figure on PlainBreed is rendered directly from FDA openFDA adverse event data, 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.