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

The study evaluates the quality of France’s centralized equine database, SIRE, in terms of currentness and reflects on its potential usage in monitoring and research. Although the system has proven valuable for epidemiological studies, there are some shortcomings due to the incorrect or lack of updates by equine owners and keepers.

Research Overview

• This research aimed to analyze the quality and reliability of the SIRE (Systeme d’Information Relatif aux Equides) database, France’s centralized equine information system used for recording individual-level data about horses in France and their owners and keepers.
• The study’s purpose was to identify any gaps or inconsistencies in the data due to non-reporting or incorrect updating by equine owners and keepers and assess the database’s usefulness for surveillance and research.

Methodology

• The study used two online surveys to collect information. One survey targeted 6244 registered keepers of equines, and the other targeted 13,869 equine owners.
• The surveys aimed to cross-verify the responses with the existing records in the SIRE database.

Key Findings

• There were some inconsistencies found between the SIRE records and the survey responses, indicating issues with data accuracy and completeness in the SIRE system.
• For horses, the discrepancy rates for horses whose castration and deaths were not recorded in the SIRE was 28.7% and 5.9% respectively.
• Regarding owners, 11% of survey respondents reported not owning the horse identified by the survey, and 33% had changed their addresses without updating the database.
• For premises hosting horses, the inconsistency rate in the keeper survey was 7.3%, with 57 respondents indicating they had shut down their horse-keeping premises while 32 had opened up new premises without providing this information.
• The owner survey’s inconsistency rate was higher at 40.7%, where respondents either owned and housed a horse without reporting these premises, or did not house any horses on their premises.

Conclusions

• The findings indicate that while the SIRE database is a valuable resource for epidemiological research, bias must be accounted for due to these inaccuracies.
• However, its use in surveillance is currently limited due to shortcomings in updating and/or reporting by owners and keepers.
• In light of these findings, it is important to develop strategies to increase the frequency and accuracy of updates to improve the database’s reliability and comprehensiveness.