Table 1.

Reasons for non-vaccination or withdrawal from the vaccination protocol

Theme	Code	N	Description	Example Comments
Attitude towards vaccine (n = 310)	Side effects	91	Reference to side effects, whether general or specific	The amount of horses either having a reaction or death from vaccination. (R17)
	Cost	39	Reference to the cost of vaccination	The cost of the vaccine. (R7)
	Testing	40	Reference to the need for more testing of the vaccine or the lack of testing	I’m not willing to vaccinate against Hendra until more testing is done on the vaccine (R14) Not enough research and the way it was rushed to market. (R41)
	Safety	20	Reference to the safety of the vaccine	Until it has been proved for 5 years I am not convinced it is safe. (R54)
	Efficacy	13	Reference to the vaccine not working,	Current vaccination is not proved sufficiently (R13)
	Animal use	17	Reference to breeding animals and lack of safety, or issues with exporting vaccinated horses	Have not heard any proof if safe to use in breeding animals (R12)
	Hendra virus vaccine protocol	21	Reference to concern regarding the protocol, number of vaccines required, vet involvement	The number of vaccines required and the frequency of them. (R21)
	Licence	43	Reference to concern regarding the restricted licence for the vaccine	Unregistered Vaccine. (R17)
	Future intention	13	Indication that vaccination maybe reconsidered in the future	If this is sorted in the future I will consider it more readily. (R14)
	Attitude to vaccination	11	Indications of attitudes to vaccination in general or other vaccines for horses	I do however regularly vaccinate for strangles and tetanus which I see as a bigger threat having had one of my horse contract strangles even after vaccinating. (R28)
	Freedom of choice	2	Indication of desire to make own choice about whether to vaccinate	I believe in pro-choice. (R46)
Risk assessment (n = 94)	Risk assessment	70	Evidence of risk assessment, weighing up the odds, insights into where respondents feel the risk lies, includes the risk of side effects from the vaccine and the risk of Hendra virus infection	They are not in contact with other horses. (R8) The chance of reaction is higher than the chance of catching Hendra when precautions are taken. (R43)
	Biosecurity	10	Evidence of adoption or consideration of biosecurity practices	Extremely low flying fox/bat population in our area and no contact with horse from neighbouring properties. Removal of all fruiting trees and regular monitoring of blossoming/flower native trees which coincide with paddock rotations. (R34)
	Horse health	14	Reference to underlying horse health issues which precludes the vaccine being able to be used.	One is not vaccinated as she is elderly and the risk of infection and contact with people is very low. (R32)
Attitude towards authorities (n = 36)	Authorities	36	Reference to authorities, whether veterinarians or pharmaceutical companies, their behaviour, motivation	Horses have died from this vaccine and the authorities are not acknowledging this fact!! (R142)
Other (n = 1)	Other	1	Comments that do not fit in to current categories but still need to be considered.	Availability (work full time during the week and compete full time on the weekends). (R22)