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Charges Filed in Tennessee AI Situation 03-15-2006 12:44 am

Charges have been filed and court dates set for early April in the ongoing AI situation in Tennessee. Persons previously notified by the Veterinary Board that they have been considered to be in contravention of the Veterinary Practice Act as a result of their performing artificial insemination in mares have now been formerly charged and given a court date for early April. In the Tennessee Legislature, Bills are being submitted and withdrawn, with the currently most favoured Bill considers equine AI to be a veterinary procedure that will require the indirect supervision of a veterinarian - despite the fact that this is in opposition to the recommendations made to the Legislature last week (see below). This is particularly surprising, as this Bill has been authored by Eric Swafford, an MTSU graduate with a degree in Animal Science. The surprising aspect is that as the holder of such a degree, he would in all probability have been taught how to perform equine AI even though he is not a veterinarian, and one would think would understand the ramifications and impact of authoring such a restrictive Bill! The Tennessee Veterinary Board is itself scheduled to meet April 17th for a proposed Rule Making Hearing. During this session there will be further discussion as to the standing of a variety of equine reproductive procedures, including semen collection, which has always been considered to be a non-veterinary procedure even in countries with more restrictive veterinary laws such as the United Kingdom! In an interesting but unfortunate adjunct to these assisted reproductive troubles in Tennessee, we had an attendee at our course held recently in Tennessee who had just - in the last year - moved to Tennessee from New Jersey with their entire warmblood breeding operation. They are now intending to leave Tennessee in the event that these restrictive reproductive veterinary laws are enacted. One cannot help but wonder how many other breeders will follow this lead, and what negative impact this will have on the Tennessee equine agricultural industry, which is currently worth millions of dollars annually to the State. It may well be that the Legislature and many others in Tennessee do not realise that Tennessee has the second highest horse population of any State in the US behind Texas. There are approximately 185,000 horses in Tennessee (National Agricultural Statistics Service, March 2, 2003) and the State motto is "Agriculture and Commerce". It seems that the State motto sadly does not apply to the average horse breeder in the Tennessee.