Joint Ag Committee begins interim work with preg check debate
On June 11, the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee began their interim legislative work with a meeting held at Central Wyoming College in Riverton.
The committee heard testimony on a variety of relevant ag-related issues, including potential changes to livestock pregnancy checking statutes within the Wyoming Veterinary Practice Act which garnered significant conversation.
The topic of debate is whether pregnancy testing by a non-veterinarian as a standalone service should be allowed, and the committee heard from several members of Wyoming’s ag community on the issue.
Current statute
Currently, the Wyoming Veterinary Practice Act dictates only licensed veterinarians may practice veterinary medicine within Wyoming with a few pertinent exceptions regarding pregnancy testing, according to a Legislative Service Office (LSO) brief compiled by LSO Staff Attorney Anna Johnson.
As the law currently stands, “the owner of an animal, the owner’s employees or any livestock operator and such operator’s employees with whom the owner exchanges work and assistance in connection with animals may care for and treat any animal belonging to such owner, in any manner desired by said owner.”
Proposed changes to the act could instate an exemption allowing permit non-veterinarians to perform pregnancy tests on cattle which are not being sold as bred cattle, the brief explains.
Veterinary perspective
To begin, Wyoming Administration and Information Rules, Policies and Procedures Administrator JoAnn Reid shared some statistics on veterinary medicine in Wyoming to provide a backdrop for the conversation.
She noted there are currently 763 licensed veterinarians, along with 21 artificial insemination technicians and three embryo transfer technicians. Of these experts, Reid said 380 of the licensed veterinarians and 18 of the artificial insemination technicians list a Wyoming home address.
The committee then heard from Dr. Ben Osborne, a private practice veterinarian based in Uinta County who also serves on the Wyoming Veterinary Medical Association (WVMA) board.
Osborne expressed concerns over potential changes to the act’s pregnancy checking statutes, emphasizing veterinarians undergo extensive training equipping them to offer more complete care and better serve livestock owners in ways a layperson performing services could not offer.
“I have some concerns as a WVMA board member regarding the ability of lay individuals potentially performing pregnancy diagnosis without a license and without any oversight, specifically in regard to the public interest and clients,” Osborne stated. “Our recommendation as a board is pregnancy testing still be performed by a licensed veterinarian within the state of Wyoming.”
Osborne emphasized, during pregnancy checking, veterinarians perform herd health assessments in addition to determining whether a cow is open or bred, which can help diagnose and prevent outbreaks of fertility-impacting diseases from brucellosis to trichomoniasis.
He admitted the act of pregnancy checking itself is easy enough for non-veterinarians to become proficient at, but expressed concern over potential issues an untrained layperson may miss outside of determining breed-up rates.
“When the animal is determined to be open, this is where the education of veterinary medicine is so vitally important,” Osborne shared. “Veterinarians have education not only in the diseases which affect fertility, but also trace mineral deficiencies or nutritional deficiencies which may arise.”
“We think of things like how to consult our producers on their vaccine schedule, artificial insemination and synchronization protocols,” he added. “All of these things are running through my mind as I’m doing my procedure of pregnancy diagnosis in cattle.”
Osborne also shared perspective on the financial importance of routine examinations like pregnancy testing to large animal veterinarians.
“As a private practitioner, a lot of my business relies on performing routine procedures, including pregnancy diagnosis,” Osborne explained. “In order for my business to be economically sustainable, pregnancy testing is a vitally important service to my practice so I can remain present within the state and continue to provide my regulatory duties and my emergency duties.”
Additional commentary
Several other veterinarians also testified during the committee meeting, echoing Osborne’s comments and sharing additional perspective.
Wyoming State Veterinarian Dr. Hallie Hasel shared results of a recent global survey conducted by Boehringer Ingelheim which highlighted the top three overlooked aspects of veterinary care including uncovering hidden health problems and pain, protecting food chain safety and conducting surveillance programs to limit the spread of disease.
Hasel noted surveilling for disease is of particular importance to Wyoming producers, many of whom operate on public lands and share grazing with wildlife.
“As we all know, we have a lot of public grazing land in Wyoming,” Hasel stated. “Whenever we have a disease within any herds grazing in common on public lands, it spreads like wildfire. If there is a trichomoniasis or brucellosis issue, a veterinarian performing herd work can pick up on these things.”
She further emphasized the critical role of veterinary expertise with the recent detection of New World screwworm (NWS) in the U.S.
“Something else coming into play right now from a regulatory disease standpoint is an infestation of NWS, which could cost our industry millions and millions of dollars and is spreading northward right now,” Hasel added. “A veterinarian can instantly pick up on the smell of this situation and potentially know where to look if they suspect a screwworm infestation, whereas a layperson is not necessarily going to pick up on this extremely important issue facing our industry right now.”
Brooke Hirsch, a young veterinarian based in Fremont County, also spoke to the financial importance of pregnancy checking regarding her veterinary business and being eligible to repay student loans.
Hirsch explained pregnancy checking accounts for roughly 75 percent of her annual income and helps her meet eligibility requirements for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, which requires recipients to dedicate 12 hours a week to large animal veterinary medicine.
She also emphasized the shortage of rural veterinarians affecting the country currently and stressed opening up pregnancy testing to laypersons could seriously threaten the future of rural large animal veterinary medicine by making the practice even less financially secure.
Dr. Kevin Dickey, owner of Owl Creek Veterinary Service and Greybull River Veterinary Service, shared comments on the importance of the veterinary client patient relationship (VCPR) and veterinarians’ roles in protecting public health.
As a member of the WVMA board of directors, Dickey emphasized expanding pregnancy testing into the hands of non-licensed veterinarians has the potential to put animal health at risk and jeopardizes VCPR.
“VCPR is the foundation of safe and effective veterinary care which we enjoy in the U.S.,” Dickey shared. “It must be in place before a veterinarian can diagnose, treat or prognosticate concerning a particular situation. Obviously, this requires contact with a herd, and in my practice area, sometimes the contact I have with the herd may be limited to pregnancy testing.”
Dickey emphasized an active VCPR is required to prescribe medications and antibiotics, and allowing revisions to go to statute, which could potentially impact VCPRs, would be detrimental.
In addition to providing proven care, Dickey argued veterinarians are uniquely positioned to protect producers in a manner laypersons would not be.
“Veterinarians carry the liability of making a proper diagnosis and caring for animals to the point of having to carry liability insurance,” he explained. “In the instance of this practice being open to laypersons, who then carries this liability?”
“The Wyoming Board of Veterinary Medicine exists to protect the consumer and uphold the standard of veterinary care within our state,” Dickey added. “If this is broadened to non-veterinarians being able to make pregnancy diagnosis, who then is protecting the consumer of both veterinary services and of food products being produced on ranches within the state?”
Industry input
Representatives of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA) and Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation (WyFB) also provided testimony, arguing primarily for the freedom of the individual producer to determine how to run their livestock.
WSGA Executive Vice President Jim Magagna questioned the need for further updates, arguing WSGA feels current statute respects the rights of livestock owners.
Magagna emphasized WSGA supports the current law’s exemptions regarding livestock owners and who can currently perform services, but admitted encouraging non-veterinarians to start businesses based solely on pregnancy checking would be ill-advised.
Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation (WyFB) Executive Vice President Kerin Clark advocated for “individual freedom in the free market” for members to manage the animals they own however they choose.
“Our member policy lies within wanting the opportunity and option to pay who they choose to pregnancy test their livestock,” Clark shared.
Grace Skavdahl is the editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
