An online survey of horse-owners in Great Britain

Abstract

BackgroundContingency planning for potential equine infectious disease outbreaks relies on accurate information on horse location and movements to estimate the risk of dissemination of disease(s). An online questionnaire was used to obtain unique information linking owner and horse location to characteristics of horse movements within and outwith Great Britain (GB).ResultsThis online survey yielded a strong response, providing more than four times the target number of respondents (1000 target respondents) living in all parts of GB. Key demographic findings of this study indicated that horses which were kept on livery yards and riding schools were likely to be found in urban environments, some distance away from the owner’s home and vaccinated against influenza and herpes virus. Survey respondents were likely to travel greater than 10 miles to attend activities such as eventing or endurance but were also likely to travel and return home within a single day (58.6%, 2063/3522). This may affect the geographical extent and speed of disease spread, if large numbers of people from disparate parts of the country are attending the same event and the disease agent is highly infectious or virulent. The greatest risk for disease introduction and spread may be represented by a small proportion of people who import or travel internationally with their horses. These respondents were likely to have foreign horse passports, which were not necessarily recorded in the National Equine Database (NED), making the location of these horses untraceable.ConclusionsThese results illustrate the difficulties which exist with national GB horse traceability despite the existence of the NED and the horse passport system. This study also demonstrates that an online approach could be adopted to obtain important demographic data on GB horse owners on a more routine and frequent basis to inform decisions or policy pertaining to equine disease control. This represents a reasonable alternative to collection of GB horse location and movement data given that the NED no longer exists and there is no immediate plan to replace it.

Demographics of Australian horses: results from an internet‐based survey

“…Surveys of horse owners to determine demographic parameters of horses in overseas countries have used a variety of methods, and show similar results to ours, irrespective of the methodology used, the year(s) the study was undertaken and the country or region where the study was conducted. There are regional differences in activities undertaken by horse owners that will dictate prevalence of certain breeds and types of horses …”

“…Most horses were in rural and regional areas of the three eastern states of QLD, NSW and VIC. An uneven regional distribution of horses has also been noted in other countries …”

“…Care is needed when reporting average numbers of horses owned. The majority of owners have one or two horses, but a small number of owners have a large number of horses, occasionally into the hundreds; this potentially causes a considerable skew in the data.…”

Demographics of Australian horse owners: results from an internet‐based survey

“…Most horse owners were in rural and regional areas of the three eastern states of QLD, NSW and VIC. An uneven regional distribution of horse owners has also been noted in other countries …”

Horse Injury during Non-Commercial Transport: Findings from Researcher-Assisted Intercept Surveys at Southeastern Australian Equestrian Events

“…In contrast to the commercial movement of horses, owners and drivers in the non-commercial sector generally and frequently transport horses in individual compartments in small two to three horse capacity trailers (called floats in Australia and New Zealand) or trucks (called horse boxes in the United Kingdom), and often over shorter distances for recreational and competitive purposes [5,10,13]. In Australia, many private equine transportation vehicles have a gross vehicle mass <4.5 tonnes, and are therefore not subject to the more stringent regulations that govern the operation of the heavier commercially operated vehicles that are frequently used for livestock movement [14].…”