Awareness, perceived relevance, and acceptance of large animal hospital surveillance and infection control practices by referring veterinarians and clients

Objective-To assess awareness, perceived relevance, and acceptance of surveillance and infection control practices at a large animal referral hospital among referring veterinarians and clients who sent horses to the facility for veterinary care. Design-Survey. Sample-57 referring veterinarians and 594 clients. Procedures-A 15-question survey targeting Salmonella enterica as an important pathogen of interest in horses was sent to clients who sent >= 1 horse to the University of Florida Large Animal Hospital for veterinary care during July 1, 2007, through July 1, 2011, and to veterinarians who had referred horses to the same hospital prior to July 1, 2011. Responses were summarized with descriptive statistics. The chi(2) test and the Wilcoxon rank sum test were used to examine associations among variables of interest. Results-Survey response rates were low (57/467 [12%] for veterinarians and 594/3,095 [19%] for clients). Significantly more (35/56[63%]) veterinarians than clients (227/585 [39%]) were aware that the hospital operates a surveillance and infection control program. Most veterinarians (56/57 [98%]) and clients (554/574 [97%]) indicated that sampling and testing of horses to detect Salmonella shedding in feces at admission and during hospitalization was justified. In addition, on a scale of 1 (not important) to 10 (very important), veterinarians and clients indicated it was very important (median score, 10 (interquartile range, 8 to 10) for both groups) that a referral hospital operates a surveillance and infection control program. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Survey results indicated that awareness of hospital surveillance and infection control practices was higher among veterinarians than clients, and these practices were considered relevant and well-accepted among participant veterinarians and clients.