The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) has released the first report from its 2015 equine study, Baseline Reference of Equine Health and Management in the United States, 2015.

The Equine 2015 study is the third national study of the U.S. equine industry from NAHMS. The equine studies were designed to further inform participants, industry, and animal-health officials on the nation’s equine population. This information will be used as a basis for education, service, and research and provides the industry with new, valuable information regarding trends in the industry.

Equine 2015 was conducted in 28 states, chosen for study participation based, in part, on the size or density of the states’ equine population. Data collected for the study represented 71.6 percent of equids and 70.9 percent of U.S. operations with five or more equids.

Highlights from the study include:

Approximately 9 of 10 operations had 19 or fewer resident equids as of May 1, 2015. These operations accounted for 58.1 percent of resident equids in the United States. Resident equids were defined as equids that spent more time at one operation than at any other operation.

The majority (70.7 percent) of operations used a private veterinarian as their primary equine health resource.

38.8 percent of facility operators were knowledgeable about equine infectious anemia (EIA). 18.2 percent recognized the name, not much else, and 7.7 percent said they had not heard of it before.

47.1 percent of operations performed at least one EIA test on resident equids in the previous 12 months, and 36.8 percent of resident equids had at least one EIA test in the previous 12 months.

The average cost of an EIA test (including call fee or cost of transportation) was $40.77, ranging from $39.34 in the South Central region to $46.39 in the West region.