Correction: Prices for veterinary care of dogs, cats and horses in selected countries in Europe

Agneta Egenvall^1*Odd Viking Höglund¹Ruben Hoffman¹Paul Steinar Valle²Pia Haubro Andersen³Cecilia Lönnell⁴Anna Byström¹Brenda N Bonnett⁵

• ¹Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
• ²Independent Researcher, Tornes i R, Norway
• ³Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Uppsala, Sweden
• ⁴Independent researcher, Stockholm, Sweden
• ⁵University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada

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The original version of this article has been updated. In the published article, there was a mistake in the Funding statement. The funding statement for the Key Development Project of the Department of Science and Technology was displayed as "2015CBd051". The correct statement is "Key Development Project of Department of Science and Technology (2015C03Bd051).'' Correction: Prices for veterinary care of dogs, cats and horses in selected countries in Europe. Correction on: Egenvall A, Höglund OV, Hoffman R, Valle PS, Andersen PH, Lönnell C, Byström A and Bonnett BN (2024) Prices for veterinary care of dogs, cats and horses in selected countries in Europe. Front. Vet. Sci. 11:1403483. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1403483 From authors: The issue was an exchange correction mistake, that was found in the Danish and Norwegian prices from the price comparison site. This means that Danish prices (from this site) are smaller than originally published (they were about a third too large), but there are few Danish prices in the paper. However, now that I finally understood what the person at the price comparison meant I did correct also the Norwegian prices - but there the differences are minute compared to the original version. I have coloured the changed sentences or part of sentences in red., and tables, but I trust you to remove the colouring…. I further found that the supplements had not been correctly included (2 redundant and one missing). So at the same time as the major issue is corrected I take the opportunity to correct this. The missing supplement is already referenced in the article (see below), while I could not find references to the redundant ones in the paper (so no text to correct for this). Table 1. Species Gender Country Time N Min Median Max Cat Male NO I 35 -50 0 46 II 34 -47 4 35 III 36 -43 1 56 IV 41 -43 8 78 V 46 -94 -1 53 VI 44 -95 -1 17 SE I 42 -14 0 45 II 42 -7 1 55 III 37 0 0 55 IV 37 0 0 55 V 39 -4 0 55 VI 40 -4 2 55 Female NO I 33 -83 0 45 II 32 -83 3 37 III 35 -14 0 39 IV 40 -83 2 55 V 43 -83 5 45 VI 42 -83 -1 9 SE I 38 -83 0 36 II 37 -83 0 36 III 33 -85 0 41 IV 35 -85 0 48 V 37 -85 0 46 VI 39 -85 5 53 Dog Male SE I 32 -14 0 23 II 29 -13 0 25 III 28 -25 0 31 IV 31 -25 4 36 V 33 -13 2 36 VI 35 -13 3 43 Female SE I 27 1 1 1 II 26 -11 -1 -1 III 26 -7 1 1 IV 29 -11 0 0 V 32 -12 0 0 VI 32 -15 0 0 Wrong content There was a mistake in Table 2 as published. There was a major problem with the exchange rate from the Danish prices from the price comparison site and minor problem with the exchange rates for the Norwegian prices from the price comparison site. The conclusions and general reasoning are moderately different for the Danish prices while they remain identical for the Norwegian prices. The corrected Table 2 appears below. Changed figures are highlighted in red. Change (%) Male cats Female cats National currency Source / Country Time N Min Median Max N Min Median Max Male Female Web NO I 67 81 123 281 63 35 235 415 II 63 80 124 231 60 35 242 436 2 4 III 50 94 132 225 48 176 242 325 16 11 IV 56 72 120 196 54 31 238 393 10 14 V 66 9 148 271 63 32 269 400 31 24 VI 65 9 146 272 62 32 258 400 28 19 SE I 54 50 74 93 49 14 131 233 II 55 49 71 96 49 13 135 247 0 6 III 47 48 70 97 44 13 133 244 0 6 IV 48 46 71 96 46 13 129 190 5 8 V 51 47 74 98 49 13 136 238 7 11 VI 52 52 79 108 51 14 152 248 10 20 UK 138 60 136 221 137 79 134 218 1 19 100 138 267 2 132 93 151 347 10 150 89 155 331 17 163 104 160 302 17 VP DK I 47 76 136 265 48 139 226 391 II 47 73 131 256 48 134 219 378 -2 -2 III 61 72 139 253 62 132 226 349 4 1 IV 94 69 147 253 94 132 235 352 9 6 V 127 71 152 255 127 134 238 357 16 9 VI 153 73 152 304 153 135 240 405 14 8 NO I 131 72 121 312 130 115 230 521 II 153 71 124 309 152 114 228 517 3 0 III 206 67 120 323 205 106 219 484 7 2 IV 206 64 114 313 205 101 212 478 6 3 V 210 68 132 331 208 107 241 506 18 13 VI 210 68 134 332 209 107 250 507 20 17 SE I 358 37 70 133 345 56 126 233 II 367 36 69 175 352 54 127 225 3 4 III 376 35 71 137 361 53 131 244 7 9 IV 151 354 51 125 233 7 9 V 375 35 72 191 353 69 130 238 10 11 VI 381 41 77 198 359 59 137 248 13 12 There was a mistake in Table 3 as published. There was a major problem with the exchange rate from the Danish prices from the price comparison site and minor problem with the exchange rates for the Norwegian prices from the price comparison site. The conclusions and general reasoning are moderately different for the Danish prices while they remain identical for the Norwegian prices. The corrected Table 3 appears below. Changed figures are highlighted in red. Change (%) Male dogs Female dogs National currency Source / Country Time N Min Median Max N Min Median Max Male Female Web SE I 34 265 384 384 30 535 656 884 II 34 256 388 388 31 517 665 967 5 5 III 34 261 386 386 31 468 653 842 6 5 IV 37 267 377 377 34 508 636 805 8 7 V 39 273 390 390 37 474 656 824 9 7 VI 41 284 420 420 37 493 704 894 13 11 UK I 85 250 391 744 II 83 231 383 730 0 III IV 72 333 445 699 12 V 79 328 461 701 22 VI 90 339 463 725 18 VP DK I 54 279 385 658 54 532 706 1117 II 54 270 371 635 54 514 682 1079 -2 -2 III 66 199 391 698 66 412 675 1063 3 -3 IV 92 200 392 700 90 413 674 1118 4 -3 V 123 201 396 1828 121 416 670 1180 7 -1 VI 147 203 398 707 145 418 682 1185 5 -2 NO I 29 207 422 773 23 544 719 1415 II 31 214 428 795 24 539 802 1457 2 12 III 39 210 437 795 31 505 802 1457 11 20 IV 36 200 413 755 28 480 760 1385 10 19 V 36 211 438 796 28 506 803 1458 12 20 VI 38 212 440 797 29 403 805 1462 12 21 SE I 321 186 382 382 290 419 665 1018 II 329 180 391 391 296 405 676 983 6 5 III 338 171 405 405 300 416 682 968 11 8 IV 334 164 387 387 295 426 659 926 11 9 V 329 168 396 396 276 425 668 948 11 8 VI 335 180 412 412 279 441 707 1000 11 10 Hmm. I see we have a problem here and authors and journal have not strived to make names match. The Supp Fig is OK (as long as included). Otherwise the Supplements in the text are referenced as: Supplementary Data 1 Supplementary Table 1 Supplementary Document 1. So now I have renamed those to that-I mean the file names. (An author will never be 100% confident that one understands the naming conventions of journal guidelines. So authors need help to get it right.) This means I have included 4 supplements with this correction. All previous should be removed, mainly because of their erroneous names, but one is updated to some degree because of the exchange error I found. Abstract Adding/removing text In the abstract, [exchange rate error]. This has been corrected to read: [insert correct sentence/abstract] (Abstract; Results: Original-OLD: By October 2023, median prices for male cat GDY ranged from €72 (SE) to €230 (DK), and €130 (SE) to €361 (DK) for females; for dog GDY from €390 (SE) to €599 (DK) for males, and €461 (UK) to €1015 (DK) for females. Across sources, median prices for cat and dog GDY increased by 2–24% over a year for procedures with at least 10 clinics per extraction. To be changed to:) By October 2023, median prices for male cat GDY ranged from €72 (SE) to €152 (DK), and €130 (SE) to €269 (NO) for females; for dog GDY from €390 (SE) to €438 (NO) for males, and €461 (UK) to €803 (NO) for females. Across sources, median prices for cat and dog GDY varied from a decrease of 1% to an increase of 31% over a year for procedures with at least 10 clinics per extraction. Text correction (1) Adding/removing text [exchange rate error]. A correction has been made to the section [Results: Prices; 2nd paragraph ]: For cat GDY (Table 2; Supplementary Table 1) the median web and VP prices (VP prices originally from the web) were generally similar. For male cat GDY, SE had lowest prices after 1 year (in fall year 2023 median for web and VP, respectively, was €74/€72), followed by the UK (few prices found, Supplementary Table 1), NO (€148/€132) and DK (VP €152). For female cat GDY, in SE (for web and VP, respectively, the prices were €136/€130) and UK (€155) had lower prices than NO (€269/€241) and DK (VP €238). For male cat GDY (Table 2) and male dog GDY (Table 3), in the UK few prices were found (because it was not possible to readily identify them in the collected data, see Supplementary Table 1 for actual numbers). The smallest median price in the fall of 2023 for male dogs was found in SE (for web and VP, respectively €390/€396) and DK (VP €396), whereas the price in NO was larger (VP €438). For female dog GDY, after 1 year the median web price in the UK was €461, followed by SE (for web and VP, respectively €656/€668) and DK (VP €670). NO (VP €803) had the largest mean price. Yearly changes in price [from first to fifth extraction] varied from -1% (female dogs in DK) to 31% increase (male cats in NO). Supplementary Figure 1 shows PPP-adjusted prices along with prices in Euro for the data in Tables 2, 3. Both measures suggest the same between-country differences. Note that while currency rates are continuous, PPP is set per year, which makes it difficult to compare price changes within a year between Euro and PPP-values. The original version of this article has been updated. Text correction (2) Adding/removing text [exchange rate error]. A correction has been made to the section [Discussion:4th sentence ]: Corrected sentence: For pet GDY, the results showed median price changes ranging from a decrease of 1% (female dogs in DK) to an increase of 31% (male cats in NO) over the year. The original version of this article has been updated. (?) A correction has been made to the section [Discussion; Price comparisons, First paragraph;]: We attempted to focus on several procedures with the aim of obtaining valid, comparable results across countries and with relevance to similar procedures within each country. Magnitudes of prices were prioritised over price changes as the time window was short, only 12–15 months. We note that even though prices for male cat and male dog GDY from the UK were found in the dataset (found during 'manual' scrutiny of data), few were captured for analysis (Tables 2, 3; Supplementary Table 1). It was deemed impossible to securely filter those out (correct species and correct sex) from the dataset, even when using extensive regular expressions (Supplementary Data 1; sheet SAScode castration). The data for GDY were represented by a large number of clinics in SE, with most other countries having at least 10 observations per extraction, which was deemed the minimum for interpretation. Considerable variation in prices was observed at each point in time across all countries, with clear differences in median prices between countries. In the autumn of 2023 (1 year after the initial extraction), SE had the most affordable male cat GDY (for web and VP, respectively €74/ €72), while SE and UK were collectively the cheapest for female cat GDY (SE web/VP €136/130, UK web €155). The highest prices for cat GDY were observed in DK (males €152, females €238) and NO (males approx. €140, females ≥ €241). The price for female dog GDY ranged from €461 (UK) to €803 (NO) at the penultimate extraction. Prices of GDY may have been subsidised relative to other prices, as previously found (40), which could vary across countries. For GDY there was no direct relation between price and prevalence of insurance. This may be due to that GDY is not generally covered by insurance and thus prices are lower in Sweden (GDY may be covered by insurance if part of essential treatment of disease). The reason for low prices on GDY in the UK may be that GDY prices has been kept low for the greater good, to keep the overpopulation low, for quite some time. However, to compare prices between countries more generally necessitates price information on a large number of procedures. Considerable variation in standardised prices was also observed within each country. However, the variation would likely have been even larger if actual amounts on receipts had been directly used. In SE, prices for emergency procedures for dogs differed substantially between clinics, with the highest price being up to 5 times higher than the lowest. Median standardised prices for regular-hours caesarean section/ pyometra in SE were approximately €2,300, rising to nearly €4,000 for after-hours procedures in the final extraction.