Horse owners’ familiarity with equine infectious anemia (EIA) varies greatly by where they live, the size of their operation, and how they used their horses, according to the National Animal Health Monitoring System’s (NAHMS) Equine 2005 study.

Overall, 46.5% of equine operation managers (such as farm owners or trainers) said they were “knowledgeable” about EIA. Managers in the Southern U.S. regions were the most likely to say they were knowledgeable, (54.3%), followed by Central region managers (46.5%).

Inversely, 14.4% of operation managers in the Northeast said they had never heard of EIA before, followed by managers in the West, at 12.6%.

The size of facility and primary use of the horses also appeared to affect awareness rates. Boarding or training facility managers were the most knowledgeable (69.6%) about EIA, while farms and ranch managers were least likely to have heard of EIA (13.5%)