USDA's National Animal Health Monitoring System will run a National Equine Industry Study in 2026, according to an APHIS announcement published on aphis.usda.gov. The launch marks the fourth national NAHMS equine assessment since the program's first equine survey, continuing a series that has shaped equine practice guidelines and policy in the United States for nearly three decades.

NAHMS operates under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. It runs periodic, statistically grounded national studies on the health, management, and welfare of U.S. livestock and equine populations, publishing findings that practitioners, researchers, and state and federal animal health officials use as reference data.

The equine component has historically run at roughly decade-long intervals, giving the profession a recurring benchmark rather than continuous surveillance. The gap between the last equine study and the 2026 launch is the longest in the program's history, and veterinarians should expect the new figures to supplant decade-old baselines still in widespread use.

What the 2026 study will likely cover

Past NAHMS equine studies have produced nationally representative data on operation demographics, vaccination practices, parasite control programs, biosecurity at farms and competition venues, morbidity and mortality events, and the economic value of equine operations. Those reports have repeatedly served as the citation of record for prevalence estimates cited in journal articles, AVMA position statements, and AAEP guidelines.

The 2026 study is expected to repeat the core modules while integrating questions about practices and conditions that have moved to the foreground since the previous equine assessment, including equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy response, antimicrobial stewardship on breeding and training operations, and the role of mobile and referral practice in routine herd health.

Why the timing matters for practitioners

A decade-old dataset has limitations. Population structure shifts, regional disease events, and revised vaccination schedules mean that figures practitioners quote in client conversations can lag behind what is actually happening on the ground. NAHMS equine data are also used as denominators for prevalence calculations in peer-reviewed research, so an updated frame will tighten the denominator for the next generation of equine epidemiology.

For equine veterinarians, the new numbers will matter most in three areas: vaccine recommendations for core and risk-based antigens, parasite management under the post-FDA CVM landscape classification of gufo..., wait, let me correct that. Vaccine recommendations for core and risk-based antigens, parasite management under current resistance-of-transmission pathways — that is, anthelmintic resistance — and biosecurity advice for boarding, show, and breeding operations.

Public-health and regulatory implications

NAHMS equine data also feed broader APHIS surveillance on zoonotic and emerging disease events that involve equids, including surveillance for influenza A subtypes, salmonellosis clusters, and vesicular disease exclusion. Updated prevalence figures help federal and state regulators calibrate import检疫, monitoring, and interstate movement requirements for equine competitions and sales.

What veterinarians can do now

APHIS has not yet released a full study design, sample frame, or operation selection timeline. Practitioners can monitor the NAHMS Equine Study page on aphis.usda.gov for the information sheet and request for participation documents, which historically precede on-farm data collection by 6 to 12 months. Operations selected through the National Agricultural Statistics Service frame typically complete a baseline questionnaire before any voluntary on-farm visit.

The 2026 launch is the first major federal equine data refresh in the post-pandemic era, and the resulting reports are likely to remain the standard source for equine prevalence figures through the late 2030s.