The influence of the full moon on the number of accessions to an animal emergency centre

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that the number of animal emergency centre accessions is associated with the time of the full moon. DESIGN AND PROCEDURE: Retrospective study. A comparison was made of the number of accessions to the University of Melbourne Animal Emergency Centre in the period February 2003 to January 2006 on full moon and non-full moon days, adjusted for day of the week and public holiday. A three day period with the day of the full moon as the middle day was taken to be a full moon period. RESULTS: A total of 12,102 animals were presented to the Centre in this time. An adjusted count ratio of 1.048 (95% CI 0.97 to 1.14; P = 0.26) for accessions on full moon days compared with those on non-full moon days indicated that there was no significant association between the full moon and the number of accessions per day. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference between the number of animals presented to the University of Melbourne Animal Emergency Centre on full moon days and non-full moon days.