As equine professionals, it is important to ask ourselves whether we are working at a competitive disadvantage? The UK's exit from the European Union (EU) was always going to be a double-edged sword, requiring a lot of patience and working out the kinks. Nevertheless, we have found ourselves struggling with the import and export of germplasm, which is affecting our ability to operate on the same level as our European colleagues, subsequently putting the UK at a competitive disadvantage. Those importing chilled semen from mainland Europe will no doubt have experienced the delivery being held in customs or missing its connecting delivery driver pickup. This is an expensive exercise for UK horse breeders, with estimated costs in the region of £750–1000 for every dose of semen not making its delivery day. Although the cycle can sometimes be rescued by the last-minute provision of a frozen semen alternative, this may require same-day delivery, costing in the region of £300–600, and may not result in a successful outcome. Regardless of the courier company or country of origin, these issues persist. An analysis of data is needed to determine how many doses of semen have failed to be delivered, but I personally would suggest that these failures are now at unacceptable levels and we must ask, how can these problems be worked out?
It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect packages to be inspected at customs and that semen imports without appropriate health certification would be stopped. Unfortunately, this is not happening and insemination vets are still subject to the stress involved in determining whether appropriate health certification is present. In addition, we are continually having to get used to ‘new’ and unexpected forms of health certification. With the notional border in the Irish Sea, it is now a requirement for all germplasm imported and exported to and from Northern Ireland to be accompanied by appropriate health certification. However, I have been asked by a number of clients and veterinary surgeons about this situation and it seems the majority of breeders are very much unaware of this requirement. Consequently, breeders can't operate in the way they used to and many have had to make alternate plans. While there is a ‘movement assistance scheme’, few seem to have taken advantage of this scheme.
If one wishes to move fresh embryos or oocytes into the EU at present, there are no commercial courier companies that will even offer a next day deliver. This has effectively stopped Ovum pick-up-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (OPU-ICSI) avenue for UK breeders. This means that accessing these services requires the increased costs of a private courier, or taking horses to the EU, but unfortunately oocytes cannot be effectively frozen prior to in-vitro maturation. Frozen embryos are still moving between the UK and EU, but there are a few questions regarding the value of these embryos with respect to the vatable value of them for import purposes. In theory, if one ships their mare's oocytes to the EU for them to undergo ICSI, and embryo(s) are created, then these are your embryos as you paid for the service that created them with the appropriate taxation. Therefore, these would be your property, so what is the appropriate value of the embryo from a value added tax point of view? If an embryo is purchased in an auction, then one will be liable to pay tax on the purchase value, as one would do with a live horse.
Clearly, we have a long way left to go. Adjusting practice to these regulations will require to work in several different areas, with lobbying in different locations across different levels, to ensure the import and export of germplasm is more cost-effective and reliable for UK breeders and veterinary service providers and get us back on a level playing field with our European colleagues.