There's a surprising lack of information about dog bites in Canada despite the fact they are a leading cause of children being sent to hospital, says Yukon's Chief Medical Officer of Health.

Dr. Brendan Hanley says he reads "several reports a week" of Yukon children requiring medical care because of bites.

"We do see a lot of dog bites in Yukon," Hanley says.

While dog bites are a leading cause of children being sent to emergency rooms in Canada, Hanley says there are no comprehensive statistics collected.

"We don't actually count them officially, either in Yukon or in Canada," he says. "The U.S. seems to have a lot of better data on dog bites."

Hanley says if Canada extrapolates U.S. numbers it would mean about a half-million dog bites every year. About one in five cases require medical attention.

Many Yukon communities have concerns about stray dogs.

Hanley says Yukon's victims are primarily children and the elderly. However, he says he's come across many cases of people hospitalised after trying to break up fights among dogs.

A research project published through the University of Manitoba seconds the view that Canada does not collect sufficient information about dog bites.

"In Canada, one to two human deaths a year, on average, can be attributed to dog attacks, a statistic that is comparable with the annual average of 15 deaths in the United States. Further systematic information is lacking on dog attacks and related fatalities in Canada," writes Malathi Raghavan of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba.

Raghavan writes that better collection of statistics about dog bites would help doctors and governments better understand the problem and help communities assess which initiatives are working.