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AgVetLink: Number 66, February 2008

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Update

OECD Residue Chemistry Expert Group Meeting

OECD is developing a series of test guidelines for the battery of toxicology, ecotoxicology, environmental fate, residue chemistry and efficacy studies needed to support registration of pesticides. The aim is to develop harmonised data requirements for use by regulators in OECD countries and by JMPR (the international expert panel that proposes pesticide MRLs for consideration by Codex). As part of this project, the ACVM Group has participated in the work of the OECD Residue Chemistry Expert Group in developing a series of pesticide residue chemistry test guidelines and guidance documents.

A January 2008 meeting of this Group was held in Paris to discuss the extensive comments received on the draft Guidelines on the Magnitude of Residues in Processed Products, resolve outstanding issues and prepare revised draft guidelines and an associated guidance document for final editing before being processed through the OECD system for adoption (mid-2008).

From New Zealand’s point-of-view, the final documents recognise our earlier written comments and are consistent with NZFSA’s (ACVM Group) pesticide registration data requirements, supporting the view that our requirements continue to reflect best practice in pesticide regulation. The adoption of these guidelines should support the development of a ‘global’ pesticide registration core data package and facilitate work sharing.

The Expert Group also agreed on the general content of the new guidelines for the design and conduct of supervised crop field residue trials and identified a number of policy issues for further discussion and incorporation into an associated guidance document. These issues included the use of statistical models for calculating MRLs and the extrapolation of residue data (within crop groups, between pesticide formulations, across geographic zones). Other ‘policy issues’ identified by the Group for consideration at the next meeting included criteria for ‘similar Good Agricultural Practices’ and ‘similar data-sets’ as well as wider opportunities for data extrapolation.

This guidance document is likely to be the one of most relevance to New Zealand and probably the most contentious with respect to international harmonisation and facilitating work sharing. New Zealand is participating in the writing groups for the guidelines and the crop group extrapolation position paper.

Participation at this meeting also provided the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the policies and procedures used in pesticide residue assessment in USA, Canada, and Europe. It also strengthened the linkages with key technical people involved in pesticide residue assessment in major OECD countries.

The next meeting of the Group is planned for early May 2008, in Washington DC, USA.

OECD Working Group on Pesticides

This Working Group (and other associated Groups) has been working to:

• help OECD governments share the work of pesticide registration and re-registration, as the same pesticides are often used in many countries

• harmonise the data and methods used to test and assess pesticide risks, so as to help governments work together and improve the quality of data and the rigour of assessments, and

• help OECD governments reduce the risks associated with pesticide use through a variety of actions to supplement pesticide registration and further reduce the risks that may result even when registered products are used properly.

One of the outcomes of such a programme will be reduced costs and time to both applicants and regulators.

More recently, the work programme has been expanded to consider areas in risk reduction, work sharing, minor uses/crops and technologies including application equipment.

As this issue goes to press, Warren Hughes and John Reeve from NZFSA are attending a meeting of this Group in Paris. The meeting will discuss updates on residue information and a report from the Global Minor Use Summit held late last year (see page 5).