Supporting Statement B

Assessment of Public Health Veterinarians Regarding the Sale, Display, and Exhibition of “Exotic” Animals

OSTLTS Generic Information Collection Request

OMB No. 0920-0879

Supporting Statement – Section B

Submitted: April 10, 2013

Program Official/Project Officer

Jennifer G. Wright, DVM, MPH

HPPI Team Lead; NCEZID Deputy ADES

Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch, DFWED, NCEZID

1600 Clifton Road, NE; MS A-38; Atlanta, GA, 30033

404-639-4749

404-679-5073

[email protected]

Section B – Data Collection Procedure

1. Universe and Respondent Selection

The audience to respond to the assessment includes State and local Public Health Veterinarians (SPHV) or their designee. The 66 targeted respondents include public health veterinarians from all 50 state health departments, 7 local health departments (Los Angeles County, Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Houston, the District of Columbia and Seattle-King County), as well as Puerto Rico and the 8 Texas health regions.

Table B-1: Potential Respondent Universe

Entity	Potential Respondent	N
State Public Health Veterinarians	State Public Health Veterinarian or designee	50
Local Public Health Veterinarians	Local Public Health Veterinarian or designee	16
Total Universe of Potential Respondents		66

2. Procedures for Collecting of Information

The data will be collected via MR Interview. An email (Attachment D: Introductory email) will be sent to each potential respondent inviting him/her to complete the assessment by clicking on the embedded, personalized link. This personalized link will allow respondents to save and re-start the assessment as convenient. This is important as respondents may need to save and re-start to allow for completion of other job duties or to conduct research necessary to answer the questions in this assessment Sending a generic email and link would not allow for this to occur; respondents would have to complete the assessment in one sitting

We will publicize the assessment via the monthly CDC Selected Zoonotic Diseases Conference Call and via a posting to the NASPHV listserve (Attachment E). An email reminder will be sent to those who have not responded within 2 weeks, with a final email reminder sent one week after the close date (Attachments F and G).

3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates

An email (Attachment D) will be sent to each potential respondent inviting him/her to complete the assessment by clicking on the embedded link. Instructions to generate a new communication are provided should the recipient feel a designee is the more appropriate respondent. An email reminder will be sent to those who have not responded within 2 weeks, with a final email reminder sent one week prior to the close date (Attachments F and G). Non-responses will not be counted as missing data; we will only analyze the data received.

4. Test of Procedures

This assessment was developed with input from 4 CDC veterinarians who have worked on outbreaks involving these animal vehicles. It was further refined with input from a former state public health veterinarian who currently works at the Food and Drug Administration. We spoke with a local public health veterinarian from Seattle-King County to ascertain their animal display, sale and exhibition laws to ensure our questions covered as many scenarios as possible.

Five CDC staff pilot tested the instrument. The minimum completion time 10 minutes with a maximum of 17 minutes, for an average of 15 minutes. Alterations were made based on feedback from the pilot test. In order to calculate the burden, we used 17 minutes for time-to-completion.

The format of the questions was developed with input from several Health Scientists. The use of skip patterns ensures respondents will only be asked questions that are relevant to their situation. The assessment needs to contain a few open ended questions to allow respondents to fully describe laws and regulations. Check-box and Likert scale questions were used as much as was feasible. This is the first time an assessment has been administered on this topic and it is important to capture as much information as possible.

5. Contact for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection

This assessment will not require complicated statistical analysis. Most responses will be calculated in terms of frequencies and review of open-ended questions. The assessment was built in MR Interview by Michael Locke, SAIC Statistical Consultant, NCEZID/OD, [email protected], (770) 488-7248. The principle investigator for this project is Jennifer Wright, HPPI Team Lead, NCEZID/DFWED, [email protected], 404-639-4749.

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS – Section B

Note: Attachments are included as separate files as instructed.

Attachment D – Introductory Email to be sent with MR Interview link

Attachment E - Introductory Email to NASPHV

Attachment F - 2- week Reminder Email

Attachment G – Final Reminder Email