VOICE
WVMA WHAT’S
DECEMBER
TWENTY SEVENTEEN
Wisconsin Veterinary Examining Board Proposes Change to Definition of Surgery
INSIDE
By Jordan Lamb, DeWitt Ross & Stevens, s.c.
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From the President ‘Tis the Season to Give!
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From the Executive Director
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In the News
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Legal Briefs
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WVMA/OSHA Alliance
Being Prepared for “The Call” License Renewals Due Workplace Documentation – Not All Documents are Created Equally! OSHA Inspections and Veterinary Medical Services
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Why the Change in Recommended Age of Sterilization of Cats?
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Marketing Beat
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Stay a Step Ahead — Preventing Slips and Falls at Your Business
New Year, Refreshed Brand
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In 2013 and 2014, the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association (WVMA) began receiving an increasing number of complaints and concerns from our membership regarding reports that assisted or advanced reproductive techniques (ART) were being done by nonveterinarians on livestock in Wisconsin. These complaints were typically concerned with non-veterinarians doing reproductive surgery on livestock. Accordingly, at the request of the WVMA Executive Board, on March 3, 2015, the WVMA sent a letter to the Wisconsin Veterinary Examining Board (VEB) requesting that the definition of “surgery” in Wis. Admin Code s. VE 1.02 (9) be revised and clarified. Under current Wisconsin law, “surgery” means any procedure in which the skin or tissue of the patient is penetrated, pierced or severed for therapeutic purposes...” (Emphasis added.) This definition arguably excludes surgery for cosmetic or reproductive purposes from the practice of veterinary medicine, which is not a position that is supported by the WVMA. The WVMA believes that all surgery on animals is the practice of veterinary medicine. In April of 2016, the VEB started a formal rulemaking process to address this concern and to open Wis. Admin. Code §§ VE 1 and 7 for the purpose of revising the surgery definition. In November of 2016, the VEB held public hearings on a proposed revision to VE 1 and 7, which, under the hearing draft of the rule, would remove the words “for therapeutic purposes” from the definition of “surgery,” and made a couple of other minor revisions related to injections and microchip insertion. The WVMA supported this draft rule. In April 2017, a company known as Sexing Technologies (ST), objected to this change to the definition of surgery. ST wrote to the VEB stating that they objected to the revised rule, “…which would broaden the current definition of veterinary medical surgery to include numerous procedures currently performed by a certified veterinary technician as well as expand the technician duties for a licensed veterinarian.” The letter stated that the rule change “…will prevent certified veterinary technicians from performing specific techniques such as bovine embryo transfer, bovine follicular aspiration and bovine amniocentesis.” Essentially, they argued that these assisted reproductive techniques (ART) should be excluded from the definition of surgery. At their April 26, 2017 meeting, the VEB decided to invite ART experts to speak directly to the VEB at their July meeting. At the July 26, 2017 VEB meeting, Dr. Greg BeVier of Sexing Technologies and Dr. Jon Schmidt from TransOva testified before the VEB. Dr. BeVier requested that the VEB exclude all ART procedures from the definition of surgery. He specifically named amniocentesis, embryo transfer and follicular aspiration as three
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