“This survey was to identify risk factors, not causes,” emphasized Dr. Roberta Dwyer of the Gluck Equine Research Center. Dwyer was the University of Kentucky’s leader in the organization and implementation of the survey of 133 farms in Central Kentucky. Some of the farms were heavily affected by reproductive losses, and some were not affected at all.

The survey was done in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and involved about 200 people in the survey process, including farm managers, veterinarians, volunteers, university personnel, and state and federal officials. The survey not only confirmed preliminary theories put forth by researchers as early as July 2, but offered reassurance that some concerns put forth by the horse industry were not associated with the early fetal losses and late-term abortions seen this spring.

Dwyer used this example to explain the difference between a risk factor and a cause of a problem. If 70% of people at a picnic become sick, and the majority of those ate the potato salad, then eating the potato salad was a risk factor. The cause of the illness–whether it was Salmonella, E. coli, or a virus–still needs to be determined, and researchers still need to find out how the contaminant got into the potato salad.

In looking at risk factors, the survey also helped point out protective factors that were common on farms that had little or no reproductive losses. Those included not having caterpillars and feeding hay to mares at pasture