FREE SHIPPING over $40
OVER 9000 FIVE-STAR REVIEWS
5% OFF ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS
100% HAPPINESS GUARANTEE
Analyze Diet
0
Home / Equine Research Bank / J Equine Vet Sci / Information-Seeking Preferences of the Colorado Equine Indus...
Journal of equine veterinary science2020; 91; 103126; doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103126

Information-Seeking Preferences of the Colorado Equine Industry for Distribution of Disease Outbreak Information.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to learn how perceptions of accuracy and availability of sources affect how members of the Colorado equine industry seek both everyday information and information during an equine disease outbreak. A survey was distributed by email and social media to members of Colorado-based equine organizations. A total of 256 survey responses were obtained from individuals representing a spectrum of ages and roles in the Colorado equine industry. Survey participants predominantly identified as female (95.3%) and their industry role as a horse owner (41%) or a competitive (25.8%) or pleasure (13.3%) rider. Younger survey participants reported greater (P < .0001) use of social media, and both participant age (P < .015) and information source (P < .0001) affected the perception of resource accuracy. In the event of an equine disease outbreak, industry role was an important factor (P = .003) in the selection of news sources, whereas age was not (P = .19). Many participants (56%) identified disease symptoms/signs to be the most important information to be sought during a disease outbreak and most (69.9%) preferred state or veterinary resources for this information. The identification of why Colorado equine industry members access information from specific sources may guide animal health and extension professionals to tailor their online presence to best meet the communication needs of the Colorado equine industry.
Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Get Full Text
Publication Date: 2020-05-21 PubMed ID: 32684264PubMed Central: PMC7241321DOI: 10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103126Google Scholar: Lookup
The Equine Research Bank provides access to a large database of publicly available scientific literature. Inclusion in the Research Bank does not imply endorsement of study methods or findings by Mad Barn.
LinkedInCopy
  • Journal Article

Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

The study investigates how perceptions of accuracy and availability of information influence information-seeking habits of members in the Colorado equine industry, especially during disease outbreaks. Key influences included the age of the individual, their specific role within the industry, and their preferred sources of information.

About the Survey

The study was conducted by distributing a survey to members of Colorado-based equine organizations. The survey was successful in collecting 256 responses,

  • The majority of participants identified as female (95.3%).
  • The participants covered various roles within the industry, including horse owners (41%), competitive riders (25.8%), and leisure riders (13.3%).

Key Findings

The researcher observed several key factors that influenced where and how these industry members seek information.

  • Younger participants were more likely to use social media for information retrieval.
  • The perceived accuracy of a source was significantly influenced by the participant’s age and the information source itself.
  • In instances of a disease outbreak, the participant’s role within the industry significantly affected their choice of news sources, while age was not as substantial a factor.

Value of the Information

The major piece of information that the participants wanted to know during a disease outbreak was identifying disease symptoms/signs, as stated by 56% of respondents. They preferred to get this information primarily from state or veterinary resources (69.9%).

Implications

The findings of this survey can help animal health and extension professionals to better understand the communication needs of the equine industry in Colorado, This allows them to tailor their online resources to better meet these needs, providing more accurate and accessible information, especially in disease outbreak scenarios.

Cite This Article

APA
Magee C, McDaniel S, Turk P, Striegel N, Roman-Muniz IN. (2020). Information-Seeking Preferences of the Colorado Equine Industry for Distribution of Disease Outbreak Information. J Equine Vet Sci, 91, 103126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2020.103126

Publication

Journal of equine veterinary science
ISSN: 0737-0806
NlmUniqueID: 8216840
Country: United States
Language: English
Volume: 91
Pages: 103126
PII: S0737-0806(20)30217-3

Researcher Affiliations

Magee, Christianne
  • Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. Electronic address: christianne.magee@colostate.edu.
McDaniel, Shelly
  • College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.
Turk, Philip
  • Atrium Health, Charlotte, NC.
Striegel, Nick
  • Colorado Department of Agriculture. 305 Interlocken Parkway, Broomfield, CO.
Roman-Muniz, Ivette Noami
  • Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agricultural Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.

MeSH Terms

  • Animals
  • Colorado / epidemiology
  • Disease Outbreaks / veterinary
  • Female
  • Horse Diseases / epidemiology
  • Horses
  • Information Seeking Behavior
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

References

This article includes 50 references
  1. Macnamara J, Zerfass A. Social media communication in organizations: the challenges of balancing openness, strategy and management.. Int J Strateg Commun 2012;6:287–308.
  2. Navarra K. Social media for equine businesses.. Stable Manag 2018.
  3. Hooper J. Internet marketing trends: an analysis of website and social media use in New York state’s equine industry.. 2013.
  4. Dellarocas C. The digitization of word of mouth: promise and challenges of online feedback mechanisms.. Manage Sci 2003;49:1407–1424.
  5. American Horse Council Foundation. Economic impact of the U.S. Horse Industry.. 2017.
  6. Oladunni FS, Horohov DW, Chambers TM. EHV-1: A Constant Threat to the Horse Industry.. Front Microbiol 2019;10:2668.
    pmc: PMC6901505pubmed: 31849857doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.02668google scholar: lookup
  7. van Maanen C, van Schaik B, Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan MS. Recent Equine Herpes Myeloencephalopathy (EHM) outbreaks in The Netherlands and the impact of (social) media on the public perception.. J Equine Vet Sci 2012;10:S69.
  8. Equine disease communication center n.d. http://www.equinediseasecc.org/
  9. American Association Equine Practitioners. AAEP infectious disease guidelines: vesicular stomatitis.. 2017.
  10. Pelzel-McCluskey A. Economic impacts of vesicular stomatitis.. Equine Dis Q 2015;24:5.
  11. USDA APHIS Veterinary Services. Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) situation report – November 7, 2019. 2019.
  12. Dervin B, Nilan M. Information needs and uses.. Annu Rev Inf Sci Technol 1986;21:3–33.
  13. Radhakrishna RB, Thompson JS. Extension agents’ use of information sources.. J Ext 1996;34:1RIB2.
  14. Geering WA, Roeder PL, Obi TU. Manual on the preparation of national animal disease emergeny preparedness plans.. 1999.
  15. Kuhlthau CC. Inside the search process: information seeking from the user’s perspective.. J Am Soc Inf Sci 1991;42:361–371.
  16. Fearn-Banks K. Crisis communications : a casebook approach.. 2017.
  17. Lee CS, Ma L. News sharing in social media: the effect of gratifications and prior experience.. Comput Hum Behav 2012;28:331–339.
  18. Guerini M, Staiano J. Deep feelings: a massive cross-lingual study on the relation between emotions and virality.. Int. World wide web conf. Comm., florence, Italy 2015.
  19. Scheufele DA, Krause NM. Science audiences, misinformation, and fake news.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019 Apr 16;116(16):7662-7669.
    pmc: PMC6475373pubmed: 30642953doi: 10.1073/pnas.1805871115google scholar: lookup
  20. Hartmann KS, Liburt NR, Malinowski K. Rutgers equine science center industry needs assessment survey 2016.. J Equine Vet Sci 2017;48:1–8.
  21. Hoffman CJ, Costa LR, Freeman LM. Survey of feeding practices, supplement use, and knowledge of equine nutrition among a subpopulation of horse owners in new England.. J Equine Vet Sci 2009;29:719–726.
  22. Visser K, VanWijk E, Korstee H, Verstegen J. Passion for horses: improving horse welfare communication through identifying information search patterns, knowledge levels, beliefs, and daily practices of horse enthusiasts.. J Vet Behav 2011;6:297.
  23. Hockenhull J, Creighton E. A brief note on the information-seeking behavior of UK leisure horse owners.. J Vet Behav Clin Appl Res 2013;8:106–110.
  24. Carroll HK, Bott-Knutson RC, Mastellar SL. Equine Caregiver Information-Seeking Preferences: Surveys in the Midwest.. J Equine Vet Sci 2018 May;64:65-68.
    pubmed: 30973155doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2018.02.006google scholar: lookup
  25. Lofgren EA, Voigt MA, Brady CM. Information-seeking behavior of the horse competition industry: a demographic study.. J Equine Vet Sci 2016;37:58–62.
  26. Horseman SV, Hockenhull J, Buller H, Mullan S, Barr AR, Whay HR. Equine Welfare Assessment: Exploration of British Stakeholder Attitudes Using Focus-Group Discussions.. J Appl Anim Welf Sci 2017 Apr-Jun;20(2):176-191.
    pubmed: 28375757doi: 10.1080/10888705.2017.1283226google scholar: lookup
  27. Pickering P, Hockenhull J. Optimising the Efficacy of Equine Welfare Communications: Do Equine Stakeholders Differ in Their Information-Seeking Behaviour and Communication Preferences?. Animals (Basel) 2019 Dec 20;10(1).
    pmc: PMC7022754pubmed: 31861909doi: 10.3390/ani10010021google scholar: lookup
  28. Jaqueth AL, Hathaway M, Catalano DN, Linders NC, Mottet R, Martinson KL. Using Web-Based Surveys to Explore Equine Industry Practices and Future Research Needs.. J Equine Vet Sci 2019 Dec;83:102822.
    pubmed: 31791526doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2019.102822google scholar: lookup
  29. Martinson K, Hathaway M, Wilson JH, Gilkerson B, Peterson PR, Del Vecchio R. University of Minnesota horse owner survey: building an equine extension program.. J Ext 2006;44:6RIB4.
  30. Radhakrishna RB. Tips for developing and testing questionnaires/instruments.. J Ext 2007;45:1TOT2.
  31. Martin N. How social media has changed how we consume news.. Forbes 2018.
  32. Mitchell A, Matsa KE, Weisel R, Klein H. For local news, Americans embrace digital but want strong community connection.. Pew Res Cent 2019.
  33. American Horse Publications. 2015 Equine industry survey.. 2015.
  34. . Equine industry: gender distribution U.S. 2012. Statista .
  35. Stowe J. American horse publications (AHP) equine industry survey sponsored by Zoetis.. 2018.
  36. Poushter J, Bishop C, Chwe H. Social media use continues to rise in developing countries but plateaus across developed Ones- digital divides remain, both within and across countries.. Pew Res Cent 2018.
  37. Ashlock MA, Cartmell DD II, Leising JG. Before it hits the fan: pre-crisis beef producer information source preferences.. J Appl Commun 2009;93.
  38. Radhakrishna RB, Chaudhary AK, Tobin D. Linking extension program design with evaluation design for improved evaluation.. J Ext 2019;57 v57-4tt1.
  39. Dromgoole DA, Dewald S, Gottwald K, Payne M. Organizational development: mass media methods.. Texas A&M AgriLife Ext 2018.
  40. Newbury E, Humphreys L, Fuess L. Over the hurdles: barriers to social media use in extension Offices.. J Ext 2014;52:5FEA1.
  41. Christensen A, Hill P, Horrocks S. The social media marketing map (Part 1): a tool to empower the digital leaders of extension.. J Ext 2015;53 v53-4tt3.
  42. Davis J, Rufener S, Dennis A, Murphy AM. Marketing for next gen extension clientele through the use of geofilters.. J Ext 2020;58 58-1tt2.
  43. Kinsey J. Five social media tools for the extension toolbox.. J Ext 2010;48:5TOT7.
  44. Dromgoole DA, Dewald S, Gottwald K, Payne M. Organizational development: social media and online methods Part 2.. Texas A&M AgriLife Ext 2018.
  45. Dromgoole DA, Dewald S, Gottwald K, Payne M. Organizational development: social media and online methods Part 1.. Texas A&M AgriLife Ext 2018.
  46. Greene EA, Wright AD. Identifying equine-related cooperative extension program priorities in Arizona via a statewide survey.. J Natl Assoc Cty Agric Agents 2017;10.
  47. Pulec KE, Skelly CD, Brady CM, Greene EA, Anderson KP. Effectiveness of webinars as educational tools to address horse industry issues.. J Ext 2016;54 v54-3tt8.
  48. Ivey JLZ, Myer PR. Use of a timely topics web tool to enhance research-based extension program impact.. J Ext 2019;57 v57-3tt3.
  49. . COVID-19 pandemic and equine facilities.. UT Horse, Univ Tennessee Inst Agric .
  50. . COVID-19 resources - horses/livestock.. Color state univ ext .

Citations

This article has been cited 0 times.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Join 99,357 horse owners like you who receive our email updates on horse health and nutrition.