139 Determination of Population, Demographics, and Location of Equids in Tennessee Using Coggins Test Records and United States Department of Agriculture Census Data

Abstract

Abstract Knowledge of equine populations and demographics is of vital importance to educational, economic, and health aspects within Tennessee. While the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) census assesses equids on operations making a set amount of income per year, this method alone may not effectively capture the recreational-use equine population. This study aimed to develop a novel approach of characterizing the population, demographics, and location of equids in Tennessee through annual Coggins test reports and to determine how Coggins test data compared to the USDA census population data. Information was collected from the 2018 Coggins tests (n = 31195), provided by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, including sex, age, breed, owner location, equid location, and reason for testing. The equine population and location of equids per county (n = 86928) were collected from USDA census data. Statistical analysis was performed using the frequency procedure and means procedure in SAS 9.4. The middle region of Tennessee represented the highest proportion of equids in both the Coggins (60.32%, n = 18816) and USDA (52.05%, n = 45244) data. The counties with the highest proportion of equids from the Coggins data were Putnam (10.21%, n = 3186), Bedford (5.33%, n = 1664), and Shelby (4.18%, n = 1304) whereas the USDA data showed Bedford (4.41%, n = 3832), Williamson (3.38%, n = 2941), and Wilson (3.04%, n = 2643) as the most populated. Per the Coggins data where sex was reported (n = 31073), 48.46% (n = 15059) of the equids were geldings and 51.44% (n = 15983) were mares. Reported breeds within Coggins data (n = 31043) indicated the highest proportion of non-mixed breeds were Quarter Horses (28.20%, n = 8755), Tennessee Walking Horses (22.20%, n = 6892), and Spotted Saddle Horses (7.46%, n = 2316). While neither method fully captures the entire population of the equine industry, assessing both data sets may be helpful in developing targeted strategies for educational programming, population or disease models, and marketing campaigns.