United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture 

Veterinary Services 

Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health March 2007 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Highlights of Equine 2005 Part II: 

Changes in the U.S Equine 

Industry, 1998-2005 

Part II of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National 

Animal Health Monitoring System’s (NAHMS) Equine 

2005 study provides a comprehensive look at trends in 

the U.S. equine industry. Section I of the report presents 

demographic changes of the U.S. equine population 

from a historical perspective using data provided by the 

National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Census 

of Agriculture, and U.S. Bureau of Census. Section II 

includes historical data regarding equine infectious 

anemia, West Nile virus, and vesicular stomatitis. 

Results of the NAHMS’ 1998 and 2005 equine studies in 

Section III provide an overview of changes in U.S. 

equine management and health from 1998 through 

2005. 

 For the Equine 2005 study, NAHMS collected data 

on equine health and management practices from a 

representative sample of operations with 5 or more 

equids in 28 States divided into four regions.* The 28-

State target population represented 78.0 percent of 

equids and 78.6 percent of operations with 5 or more 

equids in the United States. Interviews were conducted 

from July 18 through August 12, 2005, and 2,893 equine 

operations provided data on equine health and 

management. 

 For the evaluation of changes and trends in the U.S. 

equine industry, the data used to generate estimates 

based on the Equine ’98 study were re-analyzed to 

represent operations with five or more equids present on 

January 1, 1998. Therefore, estimates for comparing 

1998 and 2005 estimates are based on 3 points of 

commonality: same 28 States, data collection performed 

by NASS enumerators, and same reference population 

of 5 or more equids. 

 Of operations participating in the Equine 2005 study, 

40.3 percent identified their primary function as 

“farm/ranch” and 37.0 percent identified their primary 

function as “residence with equids for personal use.” A 

resident equid was defined as an equid that spent or 

____________________________________

*Regions: 

West: California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, 

Washington, and Wyoming

Northeast: New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania

South: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, 

Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia 

Central: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, 

and Wisconsin

was expected to spend more time at the operation than 

at any other operation, whether or not it was present at 

the time of the interview. The operation was its home 

base. 

 The following are highlights excerpted from Part II of 

the NAHMS Equine 2005 study: Changes in the U.S 

Equine Industry, 1998-2005. Released in February 2007, 

this report provides participants, industry, and animalhealth officials with information on the Nation’s equine 

population that will serve as a basis for education, 

service, and research. 

Section I highlights 

 There is no accurate estimate of the current total 

number of equids in the United States because the 

number of equids on nonfarm operations does not exist. 

On-farm equine estimates are conducted every 5 years 

as part of the Census of Agriculture. 

• Census of Agriculture on-farm horse and pony 

numbers peaked in 1910 at 19.8 million head. It is 

likely that the number of horses and ponies in the 

United States declined rapidly during the 1920s and 

1930s because motorized vehicles replaced them as 

a means of transportation. By 1950, the number of 

horses and ponies was only about one-third of what 

it was in 1925. The decline continued until the low of 

1.6 million head in 1974. As of 2002, there were 3.6 

million horses and ponies in the United States, the 

highest number since 1950. 

• Although the value of U.S. livestock exports 

fluctuates greatly, the value of U.S. equine exports 

exceeded the value of U.S. swine, cattle, poultry, 

and sheep live-animal exports each year from 1996 

through 2005. 

Section II highlights 

 

• Data exist from 1972 to 2005 on the number of 

equine infectious anemia (EIA) tests performed by 

each State annually and the percentage of those 

tests that were positive. The number of EIA tests has 

generally increased, with over 2 million tests 

performed in 2005.

• The percentage of positive EIA tests among those 

tested declined steadily from nearly 4 percent in 

1972 to less than 0.1 percent in 2005, with the most 

dramatic decline occurring from 1972 to 1978. 
United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture 

• Current information and surveillance data on West 

Nile virus (WNV) is available at: 

<http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahss/equine/wnv>. 

Table 1. Number of U.S. Equine WNV Cases, 

1999–2005: 

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 

25 60 738 15,257 5,181 1,406 1,088

• Maps included in the report illustrate the initial 

movement of WNV outside of New York from 2000 

to 2005. 

• Vesicular Stomatitis (VS) is a rhabdovirus that 

causes vesicles and subsequently ulcers to form 

primarily on the lips and in the mouths of infected 

livestock. Five VS outbreaks occurred in the United 

States from 1995 through 2005. In 2005, nine States 

had premises with livestock affected with VS. This 

was the largest outbreak of VS in the past decade, 

based on both number of premises affected and 

number of States with premises impacted. 

Section III highlights 

• The percentage of operations that used 

computerized records as the primary method of 

recording equine health information increased from 

4.9 percent of operations in 1998 to 7.8 percent in 

2005 (figure 1). 

0

10

20

30

40

2005

1998

Percent

Method

Percentage of Operations by Primary Method of Recording Equine Health

Information 

Computerized

health records

maintained on operation

Hand-written

in designated

log

Operation

records maintained by

veterinarian

No written or

computerized records

Hand-written notes

4.9

7.8

27.7

22.9

30.3

25.6

11.8

20.2

25.3

23.5

• The percentage of operators that had at least heard 

of EIA increased from 1998 to 2005 (table 2). 

• Veterinary Services began an educational initiative 

regarding EIA in 1996, which included an 

educational video and brochure. It is possible this 

initiative, along with other EIA-educational efforts, 

improved operators’ familiarity with EIA. 

Table 2. Percentage of operations by familiarity 

with EIA: 

Percent Operations 

1998 2005 

Familiarity Pct. 

Std. 

Error Pct. 

Std. 

Error

Had not heard 

of it before 16.7 (1.9) 9.8 (0.6)

Recognized the 

name, not much 

else 14.5 (1.6) 18.7 (0.8)

Knew some basics 23.9 (2.1) 25.9 (0.9)

Knowledgeable 44.9 (2.7) 45.6 (1.0)

Total 100.0 100.0 

• The average cost of an EIA test increased from 

$22.95 in 1998 to $27.33 in 2005, a $4.38 (19.1 

percent) difference. 

• The percentages of operations that vaccinated 

resident equids during the previous 12 months were 

similar in 1998 and 2005: about three-fourths had 

given at least some type of vaccine to resident 

equids during the previous 12 months (table 3). 

Table 3. Percentage of operations that administered 

any vaccine to resident equids during the previous 

12 months: 

Percent Operations 

1998 2005 

Percent Std. Error Percent Std. Error 

75.1 (2.4) 75.9 (0.9) 

For more information, contact: 

USDA:APHIS:VS:CEAH 

NRRC Building B, M.S. 2E7 

2150 Centre Avenue 

Fort Collins, CO 80526-8117 

970.494.7000 

E-mail: NAHMS@aphis.usda.gov 

http://nahms.aphis.usda.gov

#N473.0307

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