Equine Infectious Disease Issues 2010 Study—Page | 1
The Equine Infectious Disease Issues 2010 Study assessed the equine industry’s concern about infectious diseases. Shana
Gillette, the principal investigator on the study, is a faculty member in the Department of Clinical Sciences in the College of
Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University. Josie Traub-Dargatz, CSU Professor of equine medicine, is the co-principal
investigator.
Survey objective: measure level of equine industry concern regarding infectious diseases
We consulted with subject matter experts to develop a few basic research questions:
• What infectious diseases are of concern to people in the equine industry?
• How are those diseases ranked in order of concern?
• What are the most important concerns related to the ranked diseases?
• How important is it for the government to address those concerns?
We invited equine owners and others involved in the equine industry to participate in the study via an email announcement.
We obtained email addresses of industry associations, equine groups, equine veterinary practitioner association and equine
publications from the American Horse Council Directory. We asked these groups to forward the information to their
members. The initial invitation to participate was sent mid-March of 2010. The survey remained open until April 2010.
The survey consisted of 12 questions and took an average of 10 minutes to complete. Our main objective for this
questionnaire was to measure respondents’ level of concern regarding equine infectious diseases. In addition, we included a
few questions to measure basic respondent demographics (state of residence, role in equine industry, type of equine
ownership). In total, 953 people completed the online survey. A description of the study sample is provided below.
Our online survey had limitations due to the nature of the online target population which was disparate and largely unknown.
Therefore, it is difficult to determine the representativeness of our sample. Not all equine owners are members of the groups
we contacted. Nor do all equine owners have access to the Internet. Online survey respondents self-selected—only people
interested in the subject most likely responded.
It is difficult to define the impacts of sample bias on the data. It is probable that the study findings under-represent responses
in certain demographics. In anticipation of potential response bias, we took steps to present the study to potential respondents
in a manner that we hope minimized effects of response bias. For example, we clearly identified the survey as part of a
university research study, we emphasized that responses would be anonymous and we indicated a summary report would be
posted to the CSU Animal Population Health Institute website after the survey was completed.
Survey respondents were owners of 1-9 equids, distributed across regions, and online readers of horse publications
The majority of our respondents replied to our survey from The Horse website. When our survey was posted on The Horse
website, we received the most responses in one day to our survey (20% of the total responses). We asked respondents where
they heard about our survey. The majority reported hearing about the survey through a horse publication (48.0%). A smaller
percentage reported receiving the email about the survey through the equine associations (27.2%).
Survey respondents represented all regions of the United States (see Figure 1). The distribution roughly parallels the
distribution of equine operations as reported in past studies. The Southern region had the largest number of respondents and
the North East had the greatest density of respondents (per square miles).
