Infectious Diseases

Surveys Say States and Clients Are Unprepared for Biosecurity Events

By Paul Basilio

Equine veterinarians do not think that their clients are prepared to deal with an infectious disease outbreak, and they can restrict the ability of clinicians to implement biosecurity recommendations, according to recent surveys funded by a USDA cooperative agreement through the National Animal Disease Prevention and Response Program.

Members of the AAEP infectious disease committee developed a set of 3 separate internet surveys to assess the current knowledge of biosecurity and the equine industry’s preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks. Surveys were sent to horse owners, AAEP member veterinarians, and state animal health officials; each group received a different set of questions.

During a presentation at the 70th Annual AAEP Convention in Orlando, Nathaniel A. White, DVM, MS, DACVS, a professor emeritus at Virginia Tech and the founder and director of the Equine Disease Communication Center (EDCC), reviewed the results.

Owners
The first survey was sent to horse owners through the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) and the EDCC email lists. A total of 2,413 responses from 49 states were received.

“We were trying to assess the owner’s understanding of disease risk and what resources they needed to apply biosecurity,” Dr. White said.

When asked about their top 3 resources for biosecurity information or prevention of infectious disease in their horses, most (88.9%) owners indicated that their veterinarian is their preferred source.

“That’s good news,” Dr. White said. “That’s a potential avenue for education.”

In second place, respondents chose other horse owners (23.4%) and the EDCC (23.2%). About 20% of the respondents said that they get their biosecurity information from social media, and 16.0% chose Google/internet search.

When asked about their perception of the level of risk associated with commingling non-resident horses during events (ie, racing, showing, group rides), respondents stated that they believed there was a ‘moderately low risk’ (42.9%) or a ‘very low risk’ (25.5%) associated with such activities. About one-quarter indicated that commingling non-resident horses carried a ‘slight risk’ of infectious diseases.

Practicing Veterinarians
Surveys went out to 6,500 practicing veterinarians who were AAEP members, and 408 responses came back. Although a low response rate, the demographics of those who did respond were similar to the make-up of the AAEP membership.

When asked how well their clients are prepared to deal with infectious diseases, 63% of respondents said, ‘not very’ or ‘not at all,’ which seems to line up with what the owners seemed to understand about disease risks.

“That’s 2 potential confirmations that owners really aren’t concerned or that they’re unaware of the risk,” Dr. White said.

Approximately 72% of respondents said that they have managed fewer than 2 infectious contagious disease outbreaks during the past year, with 29.2% stating they have not managed any.

“There is potential bias [in the study] about the definition of an outbreak for the average practitioner, but I still think this indicates that it’s not common for a majority of practitioners to deal with outbreaks, or at least they’re not choosing to,” he added.

When asked whether a lack of client compliance affects their ability to implement biosecurity plans for facilities, 32.6% said they strongly agree, and 38.5% said they somewhat agree.

When rating the most frequent risk factors for infectious diseases that they encountered at boarding, training, or event facilities in their practice, 85.3% said that a lack of isolation of new horse arrivals was the most frequent risk, followed by lack of horse owner knowledge (52.7%), facility design (40.2%), conflicting management protocols (37.3%) and overcrowding (34.1%).

Overall, about 28% of the veterinarian respondents said they have not created nor reviewed biosecurity plans for their clients. The most common primary reason given as to why they do not offer that service was that their clients don’t want to pay for it, which was selected by 57.3% of participants.

The survey also found that veterinarians favor virtual and written delivery of biosecurity information for CE or training, and that their most-wanted tools for outbreak management are patient-side tests and handouts to distribute to owners about biosecurity information.

“Remember that when we asked about the owner’s source for biosecurity information, their veterinarian was, by far, the leading response,” Dr. White said. “If we concentrate on veterinarian delivery of biosecurity information, that gives us the potential for a large impact.”

State Animal Health Officials
Dr. White’s team wanted to assess the biosecurity challenges faced by state officials. Of the 180 surveys sent, they received approximately 72 responses from 45 states.

“The most important question we asked was whether they felt that their state had adequate personnel to manage equine infectious disease outbreaks,” he said. “Well, 50% said no and 50% said yes, which is concerning. If they can’t manage an outbreak, the spread of the disease is going to be increased.”

The officials also said that the 2 most effective methods of maintaining compliance during a mandatory equine quarantine were communication and on-site animal health official staff. MeV