Research report
A research report is the sourced material a domain
dossier is synthesized from — generated on a plan and a cadence, one topic per file.
A report carries no confidence tags. Its bracketed markers say who might have
an incentive to shade a line; none of them says anyone checked it. To reach a score, a line has
to be drafted onto a candidate as unverified and pass the Verifier or the
Corroborator, like everything else.
Section epidemiology · Version 2026-09-01 · Cadence annual · Evidence class mixed · Sources 6 · Supersedes none
Domain: canine-equine-distal-limb-wounds · Scope: Public primary sources via connectors, WebSearch and WebFetch, per the manifest's scope note for this row. Excludes CPT descriptors, veterinary datasets requiring a commercial license (VetCompass US access, the Veterinary Medical Database, Banfield/Mars State of Pet Health raw data, AAEP/ACVS caseload reports), fda.gov guidance documents and case law, anything behind an unset PATENTSVIEW_API_KEY, and non-US/EU jurisdictions — this repo's stated default research-fleet boundary.
Sourcing: Rests on one US federal animal-health survey (equine cause-of-death), one North American/UK multi-center veterinary trauma registry (canine trauma mechanism), one UK primary-care database study (canine RTA prevalence), and one small owner-reported cohort study (equine wound cause/location) — none establishes a population-level distal-limb-wound incidence or prevalence figure, and none establishes a trend direction, for either species.
No source located in this pass — connector or web — establishes a population-level incidence or prevalence figure for "distal-limb wounds severe enough to warrant negative pressure wound therapy or free-skin grafting" in dogs or horses, in the US or elsewhere. That confirms the existing domain dossier's own finding rather than overturning it. What this pass adds is a set of adjacent, narrower-scope figures the dossier's own search did not surface: a federal survey that quantifies injury/wounds/trauma as a cause of equine death, a multi-center veterinary trauma registry that quantifies bite wounds and lacerations as leading causes of canine trauma presentations, a UK primary-care study of road-traffic-accident prevalence in dogs, and a small owner-reported cohort of equine wound cause and anatomic location. Each is read narrowly below: none is scoped to the distal limb specifically in a US general population, and none supports a trend-direction statement in either direction.
_Baseline (v1). No prior version; this establishes the starting point for future diffs._
The most directly relevant new finding this pass is a multi-institutional veterinary trauma registry, not previously cited in the domain dossier at abstract depth. The ACVECC Veterinary Committee on Trauma (VetCOT) registry's most recent published report states: "Twenty-two VTCs in North America and the United Kingdom contributed data to the VetCOT registry between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023. A total of 9,820 cases (8,130 dog, 1,690 cat) were reported. The top three causes of trauma in dogs were penetrating bite wounds (35% of all dog trauma cases), vehicular strikes (17%), and lacerations (12%)" [4]. Together, bite wounds and lacerations account for 47% of the trauma-center dog caseload in this 2-year window (n=8,130 dogs, 22 Veterinary Trauma Centers, 2022–2023) — the closest population-scale figure located for "how common are open wounds among dogs presenting for trauma," though the registry does not report anatomic location (distal limb versus elsewhere) and its case mix is trauma-center referrals, not general practice. The registry's earlier report over a longer window states "penetrating trauma was the most common source for injury in dogs (52.3%)" among 17,335 dog trauma cases across 29 centers, September 2013–March 2017 [5] — a differently defined category (all penetrating trauma, not bite/laceration specifically) but directionally consistent across two non-overlapping reporting periods that open wounds dominate the registry's canine trauma mix. Both figures are [single-source] individually; cited together they support only the direction, not a combined percentage.
Separately, a UK primary-care database study reports road-traffic-accident (RTA) prevalence directly: "The study population included 199,464 dogs attending 115 primary-care clinics across the United Kingdom... The prevalence of RTA was 0.41%... Overall, 22.9% of cases died from a cause associated with RTA" [2]. RTA is one mechanism that produces distal-limb degloving and laceration injuries, but the study does not report wound location or wound-specific counts, and it is a UK, not US, population — [single-source], and out of this report's jurisdictional core for that reason.
No source located in this or the prior dossier pass reports a US incidence, prevalence, or population count specific to canine distal-limb wounds warranting device-level intervention.
The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), ran a nationally representative equine health survey in 2015: "data were collected regarding equine health and management practices from a representative sample of operations with 5 or more equids in 28 States within 4 regions... The 28 States represented 71.8 percent of all equids in the United States" [1]. Its mortality report states the overall annual equine mortality rate was 1.4%, and that "injury/wounds/trauma" was a leading cause of death: 27.8% of deaths in equids under 1 year of age and 16.3% of deaths in equids 1 to less than 20 years of age were attributed to injury/wounds/trauma (as reported by the owner/operator, not confirmed by a veterinarian; figures read from the report's own Figures 1–2) [1]. This is federal survey data on cause of death, not incidence of nonfatal distal-limb wounds, and it does not isolate limb location — [single-source] for this specific finding.
The one study located that reports wound location directly is a small owner-reported cohort: "Data were obtained for 219 cases, with outcome data for 139 horses. The most common wound cause was a wire/fence injury (38%, 84/219), and the most common location was distal hindlimb (31%, 79/251)... Wound healing time was a median of 60 days (IQR 30.3–157.0)... 3/139 horses were euthanised" [3]. This is the single closest on-topic finding located across both dossier and report passes to date, but it carries real limits the abstract itself names: "small sample size, self-selection, owner-reporting and attrition bias" [3], recruitment was by snowball sampling, and the country/population was not stated in the retrieved abstract — the full text returned HTTP 403 and was not retrieved, so the population is not independently confirmed as US. [single-source · paywalled].
No source located reports whether canine or equine distal-limb wound incidence, or wound-caused trauma-center presentations generally, is rising, falling, or flat over time. USDA APHIS confirms a new national equine survey cycle is beginning during the period covered by this report: "Phase I of the NAHMS Equine 2026 study will include randomly selected operations in all 50 States that have five or more equids... In August of 2026, representatives from the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will contact selected equine owners to complete a questionnaire" [6]. This does not itself establish a trend — it is notice of a forthcoming data collection, not a result — but it is the closest thing to a scheduled refresh point this epidemiology section will have; the prior equivalent survey (Equine 2015) is what produced [1].
[1] "Equine Mortality in the United States, 2015" — USDA APHIS Veterinary Services, Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health, NAHMS Equine 2015 study (published 2017-02; accessed 2026-09-01). Underlying data collection authorized under FR Doc. 2014-15749 (79 FR 38277, "Notice of Request for Reinstatement of an Information Collection; National Animal Health Monitoring System; Equine 2015 Study," Paperwork Reduction Act notice, published 2014-07-07) — https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/equine15_is_mortality.pdf [federal-registry]
[2] PMID 29509322 — "Epidemiology, clinical management, and outcomes of dogs involved in road traffic accidents in the United Kingdom (2009-2014)," Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (published 2018; accessed 2026-09-01). PMID 29509322 — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29509322/ [peer-reviewed]
[3] PMID 42193764 — "Owner-Reported Cohort Study of Causes, Management and Outcome of Traumatic Wounds in 219 Horses," Animals (published 2026-05-11; accessed 2026-09-01). PMID 42193764 — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42193764/; full text at https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16101474 returned HTTP 403 and was not retrieved beyond the PubMed abstract. [peer-reviewed]
[4] PMID 40898826 — "ACVECC Veterinary Committee on Trauma Registry Report 2022-2023," Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (published 2025 Sep-Oct; accessed 2026-09-01). PMID 40898826 — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40898826/ [peer-reviewed]
[5] PMID 30294833 — "ACVECC-Veterinary Committee on Trauma Registry Report 2013-2017," Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (published 2018; accessed 2026-09-01). PMID 30294833 — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30294833/ [peer-reviewed]
[6] "Notice of Request for Reinstatement of an Information Collection; National Animal Health Monitoring System; Equine 2026 Study" — USDA APHIS, Federal Register (published 2025-02-24; accessed 2026-09-01). FR Doc. 2025-02984 (90 FR 10471) — https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/24/2025-02984/notice-of-request-for-reinstatement-of-an-information-collection-national-animal-health-monitoring; the "Phase I... all 50 States... five or more equids" and "August of 2026... NASS" language quoted in §3 is from the same study's description on APHIS's NAHMS Equine Studies webpage (undated at retrieval) at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/monitoring-and-surveillance/nahms/nahms_equine_studies [federal-registry]
Well established: Nothing in this report rests on ≥2 fully independent, non-affiliated primary sources reporting the same quantity. The closest is the directional consistency between the two VetCOT registry reports [4][5] that open/penetrating wounds dominate the canine trauma-center case mix across two non-overlapping multi-year windows (2013–2017 and 2022–2023) — stated as a direction, not a combined figure, because the two reports use different category definitions and share registry infrastructure rather than being fully independent.
Thin: Every quantitative finding in §3 carries a marker and rests on exactly one source: the equine cause-of-death breakdown [1], the UK RTA prevalence figure [2], the equine wound-cause/location cohort [3], and each individual VetCOT registry report figure [4][5].
Rescoped from class 3: None. This report answers registry/published-finding (class 1/2) questions about condition and epidemiology; no stakeholder-future question was in scope for this manifest row.
Out of scope: VetCompass US, the Veterinary Medical Database, Banfield/Mars State of Pet Health raw data, and AAEP/ACVS caseload reports are commercial/licensed platforms and were not queried, consistent with this repo's stated boundary and the domain dossier's own prior finding. A USDA NASS/Census of Agriculture total US equine inventory figure surfaced in a web search summary but was not independently fetched from its primary document this pass and is therefore not used as a finding anywhere above — recorded here rather than cited as data. A Nationwide insurer claims-analysis blog post ("What is most likely to send your pet to the veterinarian?") was located in this pass but is not cited: it carries no resolvable identifier (no DOI, filing reference, or co-published report number could be found for it), no equivalent identified source covering the same "leading reasons pets see a vet" finding carries one either, and it was never written into §3 as a finding — dropped rather than left as an unresolvable source.
Not searched vs. not found: Canine and equine distal-limb-wound-specific US incidence and prevalence are not found — this is the second independent search pass (after the domain dossier's own) to run PubMed queries aimed at this exact question and return nothing scoped that narrowly; queries run this pass are listed inline in §3 by the sources they returned. The country/population of the owner-reported equine wound cohort [3] is not searched beyond the abstract — the full text was blocked (HTTP 403) and not independently retrieved, so its apparent UK authorship (via a web search of the author list, not independently confirmed by reading the paper) is not stated as fact anywhere above.
[inference] The Equine 2026 NAHMS survey cycle [6] may eventually produce an updated injury/wounds/trauma cause-of-death figure comparable to Equine 2015's [1], but the source itself does not say the 2026 study will report on wounds specifically, and no such figure exists yet — this is the report's own extrapolation from the survey's stated cadence, not a claim made by either source.
| Proposition | Evidence class | Resolvable identifier | Dossier section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Injury, wounds, and trauma accounted for 27.8% of deaths in US resident equids under 1 year of age and 16.3% of deaths in equids 1 to less than 20 years of age, per a nationally representative 2015 USDA survey covering 28 states and 71.8% of all US equids | 1 registry | USDA APHIS-VS-CEAH-NAHMS, "Equine Mortality in the United States, 2015" (underlying data collection authorized under FR Doc. 2014-15749, 79 FR 38277) | 1. Condition & epidemiology |
| The top three causes of canine trauma across 22 North American/UK Veterinary Trauma Centers in 2022–2023 (n=8,130 dogs) were penetrating bite wounds (35%), vehicular strikes (17%), and lacerations (12%) | 2 published | PMID 40898826 | 1. Condition & epidemiology |
| The prevalence of road traffic accidents among dogs attending 115 UK primary-care veterinary practices (n=199,464 dogs, 2009-2014) was 0.41%, with 22.9% of RTA cases dying from an RTA-associated cause | 2 published | PMID 29509322 | 1. Condition & epidemiology |
| In an owner-reported cohort of 219 horses with traumatic wounds, the most common wound cause was wire/fence injury (38%, 84/219) and the most common wound location was the distal hindlimb (31%, 79/251) | 2 published | PMID 42193764 | 1. Condition & epidemiology |