How far away do you keep your equines? Estimation of the equine population's spatial distribution in France.

It is essential to have an accurate picture of the spatial distribution of equines to be able to monitor equine health events effectively. In France, this information is only available for certain categories of live equines kept in professional structures and for dead equines removed by renderers. This limits the surveillance, prevention and control methods able to be used to prevent the spread of equine diseases. Our study aimed to provide a realistic estimate of the spatial distribution of the French equine population at the detailed scale of the French commune (France's smallest administrative unit). For this purpose, we adapted the Bayesian method used by Lo Lacono et al., based on the distance between the owner's location and the location of his/her equines, and on the percentage of urban coverage. To assess whether the location of dead equines could be representative of the location of live equines, the distribution of distances between equines and owners was calculated from a sample of live equines on the one hand, and a sample of dead equines on the other, both accurately located. We also tested two different assignment methods for locating equines: Method 1 assigned to each owner a single holding commune, while Method 2 allowed more variability in holding communes for owners associated with multiple equines. A marked difference was observed between Methods 1 and 2 regardless of the sample used, with only 2.4% and 4.3% respectively of the communes having the same number of equines. Conversely, little difference was observed in the results whether the live or dead equine sample was used, with approximately 45% of the communes having the same number of equines. Regarding differences in spatial distribution, Method 1 based on the live equine sample estimated higher local densities of equines without considering urban areas. In contrast, Method 2 provided more dispersed maps, with low densities in the densest urban areas. In conclusion, dead equines appeared to be representative of live equines and some of our estimates are consistent with the information collected by the French horse and riding institute (IFCE). These results now have to be compared with field data to test their relevance.

Home Sweet Home: New Insights Into the Location of Equine Premises in France and Keeping Habits to Inform Health Prevention and Disease Surveillance.

Identifying and tracking equines are key activities in equine health prevention. France is one of the few European countries with an operational centralized database that records information on equines, owners, and keepers but not on the location and keeping conditions of equines. The objective of our study was to collect information on keeping habits of equines and the relative location of a wide range of equines, owners, and keepers and discuss their implication for surveillance and control of outbreak improvement. A national email survey was conducted among the 1.9% of people registered as owners and 8.2% of people registered as keepers in the French national equine identification database having given their agreement to be contacted by email. It led to the collection of information from 728 owners, 121 keepers, and 2,669 owner-keepers. Most of them housed their equines in a single commune (smallest geographic administrative unit in France) at their home as private individuals. The distance between the communes of residence and of holding was, in most cases (including 79% of owners in the owner survey, 89.5% of the keepers in the keeper survey, and about 94% of the owner-keepers in both surveys), less than 30 km. More than half of the keepers kept a maximum of five equines and the majority with two different uses/destinations together, mostly leisure-retirement, leisure-breeding, leisure-sport, and sport-breeding. The main limitation of the study was that a relatively limited number of people (n = 3518) were reachable due to the low availability of an email address and contact agreement. Nonetheless, the findings provide an overview of how equines are kept by non-professional owners and keepers and complements information usually collected by the French riding institute. Additionally, information collected is very helpful to determine a realistic estimate of the spatial distribution of equines in France. This information is very important for the equine sector, for demographic knowledge and also improvement of surveillance plans and control measures and for the management and monitoring of health events to limit the spread of diseases.

Is the French SIRE equine information system a good basis for surveillance and epidemiological research? Quality assessment using two surveys.

Accurate demographic knowledge of the equine population is needed to assess and model equine health events. France is one of the few European countries with an operational centralized database (SIRE) recording individual data on all declared equines living in France and on their owners and keepers. Our study aimed to assess SIRE database quality concerning the updating of information by equine owners and keepers with a view to its improvement and use in surveillance and research. Two online surveys were conducted with the participation of 6244 registered keepers and 13,869 owners. Results showed some inconsistencies between SIRE records and survey responses. The inconsistency rate for equines whose castration and death were not registered in the database was 28.7% and 5.9% respectively. Concerning owners, 11% of respondents did not own the reference equine selected considered by the survey, 33% had changed address without updating it in the SIRE. Concerning premises hosting equines, the keeper survey's inconsistency rate was 7.3%, of which 57 respondents had closed and 32 had opened premises without reporting it. Comparatively, the owner survey's inconsistency rate was 40.7% including respondents who owned and hosted an equine without reporting these equine premises, and owners who did not keep any equines on their premises. In conclusion, the SIRE database proved to be a valuable and reliable source for epidemiological research as long as some bias is taken into account. On the contrary, its use in surveillance is currently limited due some shortcomings in updating and/or reporting by owners and keepers.