Horse owners, and those involved in the horse industry were invited to take part in the study via an e-mail alerting service administered by AHIC; using the national Horse Emergency Contact Database (HECD). The HECD had been established before the EI outbreak and was used as a network to contact and inform horse-owners during emergencies, such as bushfires, and disease outbreaks, and had been used previously by AHIC for collecting financial impacts information relating to EI earlier in the outbreak. This alerting service was used regularly during the EI crisis to update registrants with government support agency communications and general industry news and support information. Approximately 8,000 addressees were registered on the HECD; most were individuals, but also included were industry associations, pony clubs, and horse groups that would forward information to their own memberships nationally. Horse owners in NSW were encouraged by the NSW DPI to register on the HECD to receive up to date information.