Surveillance of animal-bite cases in the United States, 1971-1972.

In January 1971, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) initiated a national animal-bite surveillance program in cooperation with 15 health jurisdictions that agreed to submit data to the center. During the 2-year surveillance period (1971-1972), 196,684 animal-bite cases were reported from the 15 reporting areas. An animal-bite case was defined as any biting of a person by an animal reported to CDC by a participating health department.