2.2 Data collection and survey
The responses were collected in an anonymous online survey which was created, hosted and shared using the LimeSurvey® software. The survey questionnaire was divided into 6 sections, each with a subset of questions: (i) personal information of the respondents, to have a general profile of people who use this type of tools (8 questions); (ii) utility of the animal health information systems, based on how often professionals used the systems and the type of information they sought (16 listed type of information and 17 questions in total); (iii) data sources, related to the issues and constraints regarding the data type that the respondents needed or had (19 questions); (iv) risk assessment tools - this part was only to be answered by professionals working in risk assessment. Questions were on type of risk assessment and what they are trying to achieve with it (21 questions); (v) perception of using animal health platforms or risk analysis tools (15 questions), and finally; (vi) the assessment of available animal health platforms or risk analysis tools (5 questions). In total, the questionnaire contained 85 questions, 66 of which required a response on a 5-point Likert scale (i.e. never, rarely, sometimes, very often, and always).
The questionnaire was sent in September 2019 and was open to responses until the 1st of November of the same year. It was anonymous, did not include personal or sensitive data, and according to the European legislation, did not specifically require approval by an Ethical Committee.