Abstract. T he T ulsa Regi stry of Canine and Fe line Neopl asms was the second anima l tumor regist ry in the U nited Sta tes conce rned with a defin ed populati on in a delimited geographic area . Only tumors histo logica lly confi rmed by registry pa tho logists were incl ude d in freq uenc y statistics based on the ann ua l dog and ca t pop ulatio n present ed to veterinarians .During the first registry year, abo ut 1% of the 63,504 dogs and 0.5% of the 11,909 cats had one or more primary tum or s. While the incidence ra te for ma lignan t tu mor s in dogs was similar to th at in cat s, the incidence of benign tumors of dogs was ove r 10 times that of cats . The most commo n tum ors were sebaceous adenoma in dogs and lymp hosarcoma in cats. Mammary cancer was the most commo n malignant tu mor in dogs . Mammary tumo rs of fema le dogs were significantly more frequent in Poi nte rs, Poodl es and Boston Te rrie rs, in that order , than in other breeds. A greater incidence of mam ma ry tumors amo ng intact compa red to spa yed fema le dogs was seen for virtually every age grou p except in the Pointer breed .In veterinary medicine, the lack of census, certification of death, and registries of neoplasms have precl uded epidemiological studies compa ra ble to those of neopl asms of man . Because of di fferent organizatio nal struc tures and de fined reference populations, ani mal neoplasm registries have different limitations. Animal tum or registry statistics based upon estimated populations derived from enumera tion of licensed or vaccina ted ani mals [2,8,17] have suffered from populati on (deno mina tor) und erestimation beca use of the low response of the public in licen sing or vaccinating thei r pets. Ot her tu mor registries based on submissions to veterina ry medical teaching hospitals [3,12] are no t representa tive of the tum or cases (nume rators) becau se of referrals and the lack of clear defi nition of the geographic areas served. In addition to important descriptive informat ion, these studies have provided indications of possible variations in tum or occurrence between broad geographic areas . The variations per ha ps are related to regional differences in breed popularity, in the distributions of other host characteristics such as age or sex or different env iro nme nta l exposures, including veterinary medica l care.The first registry based on collections of tumo rs submitted from all veterinary hospitals within a defi ned geographic region was esta blished in 1963 in California 70 0

Rational and emotional motivation for non-participation in the genetic test for hereditary melanoma was found. Emotionally motivated individuals may be reluctant to disseminate genetic risk information. Rationally motivated individuals were better informed than emotionally motivated individuals. It is suggested that a leaflet is added to the invitation letter to enhance informed decision-making about genetic testing.

Children can be exposed to lead from a variety of environmental sources. It has been repeatedly reported that children of employees in a lead-related industry are at increased risk of lead absorption because of the high levels of lead found in the household dust of these workers. A case-control study was done in Oklahoma in 1978 to determine whether children of employees in battery manufacturing plant had a higher prevalence of high levels of blood lead than children whose parents were not employed in a lead-related industry. The data obtained indicated that the blood lead levels of the study children were significantly greater than those of the control children. None of the control children had blood lead levels greater than 30 micrograms/dl, while 53% of the exposed children had blood lead levels of greater than 30 micrograms/dl. Trends indicated that the children whose fathers had higher lead exposure at work also had higher blood lead levels. However, the study children whose fathers had good personal hygiene had blood lead levels comparable to the control children. It appeared that only good personal hygiene, i.e., showering, shampooing and changing clothes and shoes before leaving work, was effective for lead containment. The mere changing of clothes and shoes appeared to be inadequate for lead containment.

This study is based on the hospital records of 1,538 people bitten by poisonous snakes during 1958 and 1959 in 10 selected states having high snakebite rates. Of these, 792 were less than 20 years of age and 746 were 20 or more years of age. Snakebite rates were highest among children 5-19 years of age. Males had higher rates than females and whites had higher rates than non-whites. Children were not found to have excessively high case-fatality rates. Ninety-five percent of the snakebites happened from April through October. Ninety-seven percent of the bites were inflicted on the extremities: 34% on the upper extremities and 63% on the lower extremities. For 1,078 cases where antivenin was administered there were three deaths—a case-fatality rate of 0.28%. These patients received insufficient doses of antivenin. In 460 cases where there was no antivenin given there were 12 deaths—a case-fatality rate of 2.61%. These differences were statistically significant. The actual doses of antivenin which produced these results are listed.