Adams County veterinarian guilty of defrauding USDA

New Oxford veterinarian Donald Yorlets said he conspired with two others as he pleaded guilty Monday to defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Yorlets, who has been a licensed veterinarian since 1981, submitted false blood samples for bovine disease testing and issued false certificates of veterinary inspection for the animals from 2016 to 2019, according to a Department of Justice news release.

U.S. attorney David Freed said federal law requires each cow transported in interstate or international commerce first be tested for various bovine diseases. Bovine Tuberculosis and Brucellosis are communicable diseases that can be transmitted to humans under certain circumstances, according to the release.

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During the guilty plea hearing, Yorlets, 66, admitted he conspired with two exporters by falsely representing he tested every cow for BT when he didn’t. He also admitted to submitting hundreds of nonauthentic bovine blood samples to a Pa. Department of Agriculture testing laboratory in Harrisburg for testing and by issuing false certificates of veterinary inspection for the animals.

The false blood tests and certificates allowed the sellers to export hundreds of untested cows to Mexico, Canada, Qatar and Puerto Rico.

The investigation began in 2017 when employees at the Pennsylvania Veterinary Laboratory in Harrisburg became suspicious of the authenticity of the specimens submitted by Yorlets. More than 800 samples were sent from the lab to a USDA lab in Iowa for antibody profile testing.

Like DNA in humans, each animal has a unique antibody profile. But only 70 unique antibody profiles were found among the 804 samples. Officials determined that Yorlets repeatedly submitted the same blood samples for different animals.

Yorlets will make full restitution of $38,005 to cover the cost of the out-of-pocket lab expenses incurred by the USDA.

No date has been set for Yorlets’ sentencing. The maximum penalty is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. It is not known if Yorlets will have to surrender his license.

Shelly Stallsmith is a trends reporter for the York Daily Record. She can be reached at mstallsmith@ydr.com or followed on Twitter at @ShelStallsmith.