Canadian veterinarian pleads guilty to embryo fraud

Brian Hill, D.V.M., has pleaded guilty to “the largest case of genetic fraud in the history of the Canadian dairy industry,” according to Jim Romahn, a Hoard’s Dairyman contact in Ontario, Canada.
Hill admitted to taking about $1.2 million worth of embryos from about 40 purebred Holstein and Jersey breeders and to falsifying records, including sires, dams, flushing dates, and health status.
He exported embryos to 15 countries, including the U.S., with massive contract deliveries of more than 6,000 each to China and Russia.
In one aspect of the fraud, he used scrub cows purchased for as little as $100 as donors, indicating in the records that the embryos were from top-quality purebreds. In another aspect, he told breeders he was getting only one or two embryos per flush from their cows, but, in fact, was probably collecting the industry average of seven per flush.
Hill was a highly respected veterinarian — vice-president of the
Canadian Livestock Genetics Association and chairman of the certification committee of the Canadian Embryo Transfer Corporation.
He was sentenced to one year, plus three months in prison and nine under house arrest. He also faces several lawsuits filed by disgruntled farmers.