Instructions
Consult American breeders. Some American farmers may already have Chianinas, and one of those farmers may be willing to sell you one or more of his stock, embryonic or otherwise, sparing you from having to arrange an importation from outside the country.
Consult the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for restrictions against importing livestock from specific countries. At any given time, the livestock of a given country may be suffering from communicable disease or the embryos there may be vulnerable to rinderpest or foot-and-mouth disease. In either case, the USDA may ban importation of livestock from that country, even in embryonic form, and so checking beforehand may save you a lot of time.
Write to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a part of the Department of Agriculture, for a permit to import the embryos. Your application should include your name and address, the name and address of your supplier, the number and type of embryos for shipment, your reason for importing them, an outline of all points of their path of transportation, the date of their entry into the U.S., the measures taken for their health while en route and the names of any intermediaries handling them. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) may deny your request, approve it outright or set specific stipulations on given parts of the route or steps in your procedure to maintain the embryos. Upon receiving their approval, you will be able to buy your embryos.
Hire a veterinarian in your supplier's general region to certify the health of the embryos. The FDA will want him to make a report on the dates and procedures of all recorded health tests on the embryos' parents as well as on the names of any artificial insemination facilities and embryo storage or transportation facilities involved and any procedures used. The veterinarian will once again have to identify you and your supplier.
Upon the arrival of your embryos, give the APHIS a document stating the city of their entry into the U.S., the date, the number on your permit, the company carrying them, the plane, train or ship bringing them, their geographic place of origin, any sales agents involved, the number and specific type of embryo and your name and address as both the first recipient and the final one. The importer or his agent will also have to fill out similar forms for APHIS.
How to Import Full Blooded Chianina Embryos
Farmers are always looking for the best breeds of livestock to breed to their existing herds, and with new technology for such things as the artificial insemination of animals and the transportation of choice embryos, a farmer now has more choice in this matter. A farmer wishing to import embryos of the the hardy Chianina breed of beef cattle, however, may run into physical or bureaucratic barriers to doing so, and he will need to know how to overcome them.