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NAHMS Bison Studies

Last Modified: Nov 30, 2020

NAHMS Bison 2022

The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), a nonregulatory unit of USDA-APHIS-VS, is developing its second national study of the U.S. bison industry, which will be conducted in 2022.

Needs Assessment Survey for NAHMS Bison 2022 Study

To help develop the information objectives for the study, NAHMS has now conducted a brief online survey of people involved in or interested in the bison industry. The survey closed on November 25, 2020. The survey data will be analyzed and be used to accomplish the following goals:

Use what you consider to be the most important health issues facing the bison industry to develop Bison 2022 study objectives,
Identify the critical information needs regarding health management and production practices used in the U.S. bison industry to craft those objectives and the study questionnaire, and
Develop ways to encourage bison producers to participate in the Bison 2022 study.

If you participated in the survey, thank you for taking the time to support this upcoming study. .

NAHMS Bison 2014

The USDA conducted the first national study of the U.S. ranched-bison industry from September 2014 through March 2015. The study focused on health and management practices in the U.S. bison industry to increase knowledge and understanding about the characteristics and challenges of ranched-bison operations.

The Bison 2014 study was conducted as a result of discussions between APHIS and representatives of the U.S. bison industry. Industry members and other stakeholders provided input for the study process.

Through a needs assessment conducted online in 2013, NAHMS obtained input from bison producers, academia, State and Federal government agencies, animal health professionals, and other stakeholders to define the information needs of the industry. This input was used to develop the Bison 2014 study objectives:

Provide a baseline description of the U.S. ranched-bison industry, including basic characteristics of operations, such as inventory, size, and type.
Describe current U.S. bison industry production practices and challenges, including identification, confinement and handling, animal care, and disease testing.
Describe health management and biosecurity practices important for the productivity and health of ranched bison.
Describe producer-reported occurrence of select health problems and evaluate potentially associated risk factors.

All producers who reported having bison on the 2012 Census of Agriculture, conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, were eligible to participate in Bison 2014 and received a questionnaire in the mail. As with other NAHMS studies, the study was national in scope, collaborative in nature, and voluntary.

The Bison 2014 study was conducted by NAHMS under its designation as a statistical unit under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA). By law, all information collected during the Bison 2014 study will be used for statistical purposes only and will be treated as confidential in accordance with CIPSEA guidelines. Bison 2014 results are presented only in an aggregate manner.

Reports:

Bison 2014: Health and Management Practices on U.S. Ranched-Bison Operations, 2014 (pdf 11.1mb 12/16)

StoryMap:

The NAHMS Bison 2014 StoryMap is a stand-alone web-based resource that provides a summary of the highlights from the NAHMS Bison 2014 study through an interface combining text, photos, maps, and simple data dashboards. It was developed on Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform with templates, map interfaces, and navigation devices designed by Esri, a geographic information system company.

Interactive StoryMap - Ranched Bison in the US