Equine 2005: Baseline Reference of Equine Health Management Strategies at Equine Events in Six States, 2005.

摘要

The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) is a nonregulatory division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) created to help meet the Nations animal-health information needs. The NAHMS Equine 2005 Events Study was designed to provide participants, industry, and animal health officials with information on equine health-management strategies employed at equine events in six selected States. The studys objective was developed by exploring existing literature, attending equine industry meetings to learn about information gaps, and soliciting input regarding priorities for equine health from animal health officials. The objective focused on describing health-management factors at events that could impact the occurrence and potential spread of equine infectious diseases. Equine infectious diseases can result in lost use of animals and in some cases death. There are many potential control points for preventing or minimizing the impact of equine infectious-disease outbreaks, including precautions that reduce exposure to infectious agents, optimization of resistance through vaccination if exposure occurs, and early identification of outbreaksall of which can limit the spread of disease. NAHMS staff developed a list of equine events for the six participating States (California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, New York, and Texas). This list served as the sampling frame for the study. A statistically valid sample was selected such that inferences could be made to major equine events in the State. Events likely to have a small number of local equidssuch as jackpot roping, local lessons, or showswere excluded from the study. The study sample yielded 252 participating events representing the 3,227 events on the list. (See Section II Sampling and Estimation and Appendices I and II.) Start dates for these events occurred between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2005. Data collection took place from January 9, 2005, to April 25, 2006.