Part 3: Client and veterinary economics

The final and third part of this series will consider factors affecting client and veterinary economics of equine embryo transfer. The economic data was collected during the 1997 practitioner survey. The survey revealed that the issue of cost versus yield for this technique may be ameliorated if the practitioner carefully considers the donor mare selection, the recipient source, and the embryo transfer technique. For the client to attain maximal economic benefit, this technique should be used in fertile mares over 2 years of age that are of a breed that registers embryo transfer foals. For the veterinarian to incur the least amount of financial and temporal investment in this procedure, he/she should set up an embryo recovery and chilled transport unit. To reduce both client and veterinary financial and temporal investment in a practice offering complete embryo transfer services, perfecting the nonsurgical embryo transfer technique would be advantageous. Thus, there are economically feasible avenues for both the client and the veterinarian to benefit from equine embryo transfer in practice.