Updates

ACVM Publications

• ACVM - Registration Standard and Guideline for Efficacy of Vaccines will shortly be available on our website and/or may be ordered from Manor House Press using the enclosed order form. A summary of submissions can be found with the archived discussion document of the same name.
• ACVM - Registration Standard and Guideline for Efficacy of Laxatives has been withdrawn from our list of standards at the discussion document stage. As pointed out by one of our readers, oral laxatives are exempt with conditions from registration under the ACVM Act.

ACVM Website

Policies

The following operational policies have been updated and can be found under Publications/Operational Policies and Procedures:

• ACVM Group Operational Policy on Technical Consultative Committee
• ACVM Group Operational Policy on Fit and Proper Persons as Approved for the Purposes of the Pesticides Act 1979.

The changes that have been made to the previous versions of these documents have been summarised and can be accessed using the Changes button beside the new versions.

The following operational policies have been finalised and can be found under Publications/Operational Policies and Procedures:

• ACVM Group Operational Policy on Toxicological Data Requirements for Animal Remedy Applications Where the Active Ingredient Is Also a Medicine that Has Been Given Consent under the Medicines Act 1981
• ACVM Group Operational Policy - Antibiotic Resistance Review.

Information Papers

The following information papers have been published on our website. They can be found under Publications/ Information papers/ACVM Act processes.

• ACVM - Approach to Transition of Registered and Licensed Products (refer to article here)
• Handling of Annual Fees for Products Exempt from the Need to be Registered under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act 1997 (refer to article here)
• Business Rules for Data Protection (refer to article here).

Other

• As noted elsewhere, data package review templates can now be found under Publications/Forms.
  
• Our Who’s Who page (found under About Us from the front page) will shortly be updated to include more of the ACVM Group staff.
  
• The Industry Liaison Group and AVMAC pages are being changed to update membership of these groups and to change some old terminology used in the Meeting Procedure documents. Members of these groups will receive an updated version of these procedures as soon as they are finalised.
  
• Notes from the recent Animal Remedies and Pesticides Board meetings are available under Forums/Animal Remedies Board and Pesticides Board / Notes/Papers from Board meetings.

Our New Look

We are currently undertaking a significant renovation of our website. Some of the most important changes are as follows:

• The Front Page
  You may be able to go directly to the subject you seek by using one of the buttons on the left-hand side of your screen. These will take you to our most commonly used pages. There will often be menus behind each of these buttons leading you to further information on that subject. When you access the site for the next few weeks, there may still be menu items on the right-hand side of your screen. These also work in the manner described above. The Recent Additions will disappear from the front page but will still be accessible through the Site A-Z (see below) by subject.

• A useful new link to note on the front page is the one entitled Registration/Licensing GRAS Information/Fees. This leads you to menus containing links to information about those subjects. We have grouped together information requirements, standards and guidelines, consultants and fees in each of the subject pages there.

• The Site A-Z button will take you to an alphabetical list of subjects covered in this website. Some of the buttons that used to reside on the front page have been removed as they were not used often enough to have them take up front page space. They can now be found via the Site A-Z.

• Gazette notices and media releases relating to ACVM Group activities can be accessed via the Site A-Z.

• As mentioned above, our list of consultants can be accessed via the Registration/Licensing/GRAS Information/Fees button. They can also be found by using the Registers and Lists button on the front page, and through the Site A-Z.

• If you have been notified of a change by having subscribed to a URL minder, check the What’s New button. This gives a brief rundown of changes that have been made to the website on a daily basis.

• Changes to documents themselves will be detailed with the relevant document using a Change button beside the document. These buttons will hold only the latest changes to documents.

With this update, we are trying to keep a balance of reasonably short pages vs as few as possible links to get to the information you seek. Many of our pages now contain renovated menus in an attempt to achieve this. If you have any suggestions for further changes to the website, please contact:

Erin Daldry
Technical Advisor
ACVM Group
PO Box 2526
WELLINGTON
Phone: 04 460 8757
Fax: 04 460 8771
Email: daldrye@maf.govt.nz

Submissions

Antibiotic Resistance

Three submissions were received on the Draft Operational Policy – Antibiotic Resistance Review. A summary of these is available on our website under Publications/Archived documents/Draft policies (archived)/Draft Antibiotic Resistance Review Policy (use the submissions link). Submitters will receive a copy of the summary of submissions by post.

Once this policy is finalised, it will be available under Publications/Operational Policies and Procedures/ Operational Policy on Antibiotic Resistance Review and can also be accessed through the Site A-Z under Antibiotic Resistance.

Registration of Somatotropins

Fourteen submissions were received on the Draft Operational Policy – Registration of Somatotropins. A summary of these is available on our website under Publications/Archived documents/Draft policies (archived)/Draft Registration of Somatotropins Policy (use the submissions link). Submitters will receive a copy of the summary of submissions by post.

Once this policy has been finalised, it will be available under Publications/Operational Policies and Procedures/Operational Policy on Registration of Somatotropins.

2,4-D

Illness has delayed the final report on the review of information submitted on the herbicide 2,4-D. To date, the Expert Panel consisting of Professor Bill Glass (representing OSH), Dr Deborah Reid (ERMA NZ), JimWaters (Ministry of Health) and John Reeve (Pesticides Board) has met and sent an interim report to Pesticides Board members.

Some additional information on the volatility of the various 2,4-D formulations has been gathered, and the submissions have been summarised, ready for the final report to be drafted and agreed by the Panel. This report will then be considered by the Pesticides Board in a telephone conference when decisions will be made as to whether a formal face-to-face meeting is required to consider 2,4-D, and whether to open the meeting up to interested parties. It is expected to resolve the matter in early to mid August.