(a) This chapter shall not be construed as applying to:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 63-12-133

  • Animal: means any animal other than man and includes fowl, birds, reptiles and fish, wild or domestic, living or dead. See Tennessee Code 63-12-103
  • Board: means the board of veterinary medical examiners. See Tennessee Code 63-12-103
  • Consultation: means when a licensed veterinarian receives advice in person, telephonically, electronically, or by any other method of communication, from a veterinarian licensed in this or any other state, or other person whose expertise, in the opinion of the licensed veterinarian, would benefit a patient. See Tennessee Code 63-12-103
  • Licensed veterinarian: means a person who is validly and currently licensed to practice veterinary medicine in this state. See Tennessee Code 63-12-103
  • Livestock: means all equine as well as animals that are being raised primarily for use as food or fiber for human utilization or consumption including, but not limited to, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and poultry. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Practice of veterinary medicine: means to:
    (i) Diagnose, treat, correct, change, alleviate, or prevent animal disease, illness, pain, deformity, defect, injury, or other physical, dental, or mental conditions by any method or mode, including:
    (a) The prescription, dispensing, administration or application of any drug, medicine, biologic, apparatus, anesthetic, or other therapeutic or diagnostic substance or medical or surgical, including cosmetic, technique. See Tennessee Code 63-12-103
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Veterinarian: means a person who has received a doctor of veterinary medicine degree or its equivalent from an approved school or college of veterinary medicine. See Tennessee Code 63-12-103
  • Veterinary medicine: includes veterinary surgery, obstetrics, dentistry and all other branches or specialties of veterinary medicine. See Tennessee Code 63-12-103
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Students in schools or colleges of veterinary medicine when in performance of duties or actions assigned by their instructors or when working under the immediate supervision of a licensed veterinarian;
(2) Any lawfully qualified veterinarian residing in another state or country, when meeting in consultation with a licensed veterinarian of this state, who:

(A) Does not open an office or appoint a place to do business within this state;
(B) Does not print or use letterhead or business cards reflecting addresses in this state;
(C) Does not establish answering services or advertise the existence of a practice’s address within this state; and
(D) Practices veterinary medicine as a consultant while rendering services directly to the public, under the direction of and in consultation with licensees of this state, for less than twelve (12) days per calendar year.
(3) Any veterinarian in the employ of a state agency or the United States government while actually engaged in the performance of the veterinarian’s official duties; however, this exemption shall not apply to such person when the person is not engaged in carrying out the person’s official duties or is not working at the installations for which the person’s services were engaged;
(4) Prevent any person or the person’s regular employee from administering to the ills and injuries of the person’s own animals, including, but not limited to, castration of animals and dehorning of cattle, unless title has been transferred or employment provided for the purpose of circumventing this law;
(5) State agencies, accredited schools, institutions, foundations, business corporations or associations, physicians licensed to practice medicine and surgery in all its branches, graduate doctors of veterinary medicine or persons under the direct supervision thereof, who or which conduct experiments and scientific research on animals in the development of pharmaceuticals, biologicals, serums or methods of treatment or techniques for the diagnosis or treatment of human ailments, or when engaged in the study and development of methods and techniques directly or indirectly applicable to the problems of the practice of veterinary medicine;
(6) Veterinary aides, nurses, laboratory technicians or other employees of a licensed veterinarian who administer medication or render auxiliary or supporting assistance under the responsible supervision of such licensed veterinarian;
(7) Any person gratuitously treating animals in cases of emergency; provided, that the person does not claim to be a veterinarian or use any title or degree appertaining to the practice thereof;
(8) Any merchant or manufacturer selling at the merchant’s or manufacturer’s regular place of business medicines, feed, appliances or other products used in the prevention or treatment of animal diseases. This shall not be construed to authorize the sale of medicines or biologicals that must be obtained by a prescription from a veterinarian, but shall only include the right to sell those medicines that are classified as proprietary and that are commonly known as over-the-counter medicines;
(9) Any person advising with respect to or performing acts that the board by rule has prescribed as accepted livestock management practice;
(10) Any person or such person’s employees when removing an embryo from the person’s own food animal for the purpose of transplanting or cryopreserving such embryo; and
(11) The use of any manual procedure for the testing of pregnancy in bovine animals when performed by a farmer as defined in § 67-6-207(e)(1), (3), (4) and (5), only if:

(A) Such farmer testing for pregnancy is not compensated by the person who owns such animals, other than by the exchange of services for or the use of equipment by such farmer performing the pregnancy test; and
(B) The results of such testing are for the owner’s use only and not to affect commerce.
(b) The operations known as castrating and dehorning are not regarded as practicing veterinary surgery, and nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit anyone from castrating or dehorning any wild or domestic animal.
(c) For the purposes of this chapter, the practice of veterinary medicine shall not include the artificial insemination of livestock, as the term livestock is defined in § 43-1-114. The practice of artificial insemination shall be considered an accepted livestock management practice.
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