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AgVetLink April 2004: Page 2

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ACVM Regulations amendment

The Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2001were amended on 23 February 2004. The amendment came into force on 25 March 2004.

The amendment provides for the following:

1. Vertebrate and invertebrate attractants and repellents, invertebrate mating disrupters that are not applied directly to animals or plants, and antisapstains are exempted from registration without being subject to any direct regulatory control;

2. Substances, mixtures of substances or trade name product veterinary medicines that are not registered under the ACVM Act may be used as a veterinary medicine in New Zealand, subject to the following conditions:

a. the preparation may be imported only under a permit issued by the Director-General, issued only when there is no equivalent product already registered in New Zealand and the product is needed to ensure the immediate welfare of the animal(s), 

b. the preparation must not contain any substance that is prohibited for use as an agricultural compound, 

c. the preparation must not be used on animals except under the direct care, authority, or prescription of a veterinarian, and 

d. the veterinarian must act in accordance with any applicable code of practice in force under section 28 of the ACVM Act;

3. The definition of a fertiliser additive has been amended by adding the term ‘biological compound’ to make it clear that fertiliser additives can be or contain organisms and still be exempted from registration;

4. Attractants applied directly to plants and used solely to attract vertebrates or invertebrates, and invertebrate mating disrupters that are applied directly to plants and used solely to interfere with the reproduction of invertebrates are exempted from registration subject to regulatory conditions; and 

5. The addition of 703 substances that are generally recognised as safe to add to oral nutritional compounds or plant compounds.

 

Advertising policy

As indicated at the recent AVMAC meeting, the ACVM Group facilitated a workshop to discuss the concerns around advertising of prescription animal remedy (PAR) products as set out in the ACVM Standard for Prescription Animal Remedy Veterinary Medicines.

In addition to ACVM Group representatives, the meeting was attended by representatives from ARPPA, Agcarm, NZVA and Federated Farmers. The meeting was very useful in understanding the concerns of the various parties and in clarifying the differences between advertising/promotion and the dissemination of information.

Implementation

The ACVM Group also took the opportunity to present the implementation plans for the PAR standard, particularly how the approvals and any subsequent sanctions will work (for existing ‘traders’ and for new entrants).

Advertising was then considered in this context.

Review

While there are still some residual concerns (from NZVA and from Agcarm) in relation to new entrant traders, it was agreed that the standard does not need revision at this time. The working party has agreed to a further meeting in 3-4 months to review implementation and any issues arising; members will also feed back to the ACVM Group details of matters as they arise.

‘Slice of life’ focus

The ACVM Group has undertaken to make sure that there is a focus on the advertising part of the standard in the planned ‘slice of life’ reviews of the implementation of the standard over the next two to three years.

 

ACVM Act amendment

A paper presenting proposals for amendments to the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act 1997 is being finalised and is expected to be released in April. The paper summarises and takes into account submissions from the MAF discussion paper Proposed Amendments to the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act 1997. Stakeholders will be given an opportunity to comment on the proposals.

Final proposals will be put to Government for consideration and incorporation into an amendment Bill.