USDA Wants Horse Owners' Data for Equine 2026 Health Spy Mission
Published Date: 2/24/2025
Notice
Summary
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service wants to bring back a survey called the Equine 2026 Study to learn more about horse health across the country. Horse owners, vets, and anyone involved with horses might be asked to share info. They’re asking for public comments by April 25, 2025, before moving forward—no big costs, just a chance to help keep horses healthy!
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 3 costs, 0 mixed.
Study data to support disease preparedness
The data collected will be analyzed into national and regional reports to help estimate equine health and management, predict or detect disease trends, address emerging issues, aid disease preparedness, inform surveillance design, and provide parameters for disease spread models.
Who may be contacted for the study
You may be contacted if you are an equine owner/operator with 5 or more equids in any of the 50 States, or if you are an equine event representative or participant in one of 30 listed States. Phase II States include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Estimated time burden and respondent counts
The study estimates an average burden of 0.4436 hours per response. APHIS estimates 6,545 annual respondents, an average of 3 responses per respondent, 16,832 total annual responses, and 7,466 total annual burden hours.
Biologic sampling offered at events
At selected Phase II equine events, biologic sampling will be available to selected participants and environmental samples will be used to estimate respiratory disease pathogen prevalence. Phase II is limited to events likely to draw participants statewide or from out of State.
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Key Dates
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