Table 1.

Variables collected during the survey of smallholders (n = 240) and description of variables re-coded for multivariable analysis.

Survey		Data re-coding
Variables	Description & how it was collected	Answer	Variable	Category	Description
Animal ownership	How many animals of the following species are owned by the household? Cattle Sheep Goats Pigs Llamas Poultry Donkeys Horses	Number of animals owned per species	Cattle owneda	Categorical (≤9 cattle; ≥10 cattle)	Cut-off was based on a statement repeatedly mentioned during focus group discussions: ‘in order to receive technical support households should be affiliated to an institution and for this one should have at least 10 animals (cattle)’
			Number of species owneda	Species owned in the household: •1 species •2 species •3 species •4 species •5 species •6 species	Household were classified regarding how many different livestock species they owned (for how many of the following species they owned at least 1 animal: cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, llamas)
Frequency of visits from Official Veterinary Services	Last time veterinary services visited the community	Options given: • less than a year ago • more than 1 year but less than 2 years ago •between 2 and 5 years ago •more than 5 years ago	OVS visited within the last yeara	Yes/No	OVS visited the community less than a year ago
Disease awareness	Have you heard about:		Awareness of diseases	Household member interviewed have heard of:	How many of the four noticeable diseases mentioned during the survey of which the interviewee is aware ofa
	•Food and Mouth Disease (FMD)	Yes/No		•1 disease
	•Bovine Rabies	Yes/No		•2 disease
	•Bovine Tuberculosis (TB)	Yes/No		•3 disease
	•Classical swine fever	Yes/No		•4 disease
Actions towards animal diseases	•Action(s) you would take if a new disease emerged in your animalscWhat would you do if a disease that has not affected your animals before presented for the first time in your animals?	Scenarios were written to describe an animal health situation. A set of possible answers were written to facilitate recording, but possible answers were not read to the person answering the questionnaire. Possible answers included:	Answers ‘would notify the OVS’ and ‘would ask/notify a private vet’ were joined in one category called: Communicate outside the communityb	Yes/No	This was based on the fact that private vets are considered part of the Surveillance National System and are expected to report any suspected case
	•Action(s) most people in the community would take if a disease with high mortality affected their animalsc ‘What would most people in the community do if almost all their animals die within one week?’	•Would communicate to other animal owners in the community •Would let the animal health worker in the community know •Would ask/communicate a private vet •Would report to the OVS •Mention other option (specify)	Answers ‘communicate to other animal owners in the community’ and ‘would let the animal health worker in the community know’ were joined in one category called: Communicate within the communityb	Yes/No	This was based on the assumption that animal health workers would communicate with other animal owners

Survey of smallholders was carried out between May and October 2009 in Southern Bolivia (n = 240 smallholders from 4 agro-ecological zones (60 households per zone)).

^a‘Cattle owned’, ‘number of species owned’, ‘OVS visited within the last year’ and ‘awareness of diseases’ were the predictor variables.

^b‘Communicate outside the community’ and ‘Communicate within the community’ were the outcome variables in the multivariate analysis.

^cScenarios considered.