Practical Issues
Service quality and respect were identified as important. For example, poor management of uncertainty around the HeVD vaccine during a consultation or perceived ostracism by veterinarians led to a poor experience for both the horse owner and the attending veterinarian (Manyweathers et al., 2020). Communication of test results and their meaning also presented challenges. In a study of the communication of HeV antibody titre results, veterinarians acknowledged difficulty in communicating the results, titre cut-off value, and the relationship between the titre value and protective immunity (Barrett et al., 2021).
Access and affordability also influenced horse-owners’ decisions about vaccine frequency, in that the perceived high cost and need for ongoing boosters were barriers to HeVD vaccination (Manyweathers, Field, Longnecker, et al., 2017).