Staff updates

The Veterinary Medicines team is pleased to welcome Tamara Cattan as its new Adviser. Tamara brings a strong clinical foundation shaped by veterinary practice across both New Zealand and Chile.

Tamara’s experience as a veterinarian and senior veterinary nurse spans emergency medicine, complex case management, routine surgery, anaesthesia, and client-centred care. Her grounded understanding of frontline challenges to delivering high-quality care strengthens the Veterinary Medicines team’s evidence-based decision-making processes.

As an overseas-trained veterinarian fluent in English and Spanish, Tamara brings valuable cross-cultural and regulatory insight. In her spare time, Tamara enjoys volleyball and walking her dog. We are delighted to have her on board.

Recruitment

The Veterinary Medicines Assessments team has been operating with reduced capacity since June 2025 due to two vacancies, with this situation continuing into 2026. In addition, a third vacancy arose following the departure of a Senior Adviser in December 2025.

Recruitment for these roles has been advertised domestically, see

Seek - https://www.seek.co.nz/job/90882820?ref=hirer-jobs-list
Jobs.govt.nz - https://jobs.govt.nz/jobtools/jncustomsearch.viewFullSingle?in_organid=16563&in_jnCounter=226485231

To broaden the candidate pool, we have also engaged with international regulatory counterparts and identified appropriate platforms used to advertise similar roles. We are now preparing to commence international recruitment for all three positions.

If you are interested in joining our team, or know of someone who may be suitable, please contact Alison Weaver at Alison.Weaver@mpi.govt.nz

Getting to know you

Site visits to Corteva, Arxada, and Orillion

The Agricultural Chemicals and Vertebrate Toxic Agents (VTAs) Assessments team appreciated the opportunity to visit Corteva, Arxada, and Orillion last month. Across these visits, the team was offered insight into different aspects of the product lifecycle, with each company showcasing distinct activities, such as efficacy and residue trials to support product registration, domestic product development, or manufacturing facilities. For technical advisers, seeing how agricultural chemicals and vertebrate toxic agents are developed, tested, trialled, and manufactured gave invaluable real-world context for the team’s core assessment work.

The team want to thank Corteva, Arxada, and Orillion for hosting them on-site, and for the opportunity to discuss current and future product applications. These visits strengthen the team’s technical understanding and support the delivery of more robust, effective, and efficient assessments for all registrants.

Site visits to Ballance Agri-Nutrients and Ravensdown

On 26 and 27 February, representatives from the ACVM and Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) inhibitors teams visited Ballance Agri-Nutrients and Ravensdown Limited. 

The companies gave practical insights into how high-quality fertilisers are delivered to New Zealand’s pastoral farmers.

Over the two days, the team saw fertiliser manufacturing and coating facilities, and heard from both companies on their plans to develop more products to reduce emissions. This provided an opportunity for the companies to talk through the challenges of registration and an opportunity for ACVM and EPA to learn first-hand about the practicalities of fertiliser manufacturing and delivery. 

Update on proposed self-assessable changes

Tranche 1:

Consultation on guidance closed on 15 March 2026. This consists of stand-alone guidance for self-assessable changes (SACs), encompassing existing and proposed low-complexity changes such as minor formulation adjustments, pack size updates, and removal of manufacturers where multiple sites are approved. Five submissions were received and we are currently working through the feedback.

Tranches 2 and 3:

Guidance is being drafted on proposed Tranche 2 SACs. These are changes needing some process refinement such as updates to specifications, adding already approved manufacturing sites, and test method changes.

Planning has also started for more complex SACs requiring policy development and industry working groups.

Call for experts: New working groups on proposed Tranche 3 self-assessable changes

As planning starts for the next phases of the self-assessable changes (SAC) work programme, we are looking for industry volunteers to help develop clear, practical criteria. Volunteers should have relevant expertise across agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines on a range of topics, for example:

Agricultural chemicals

• Adding alternate tradenames where the main constituent is the same or identical.
• Defining what qualifies as a “minor” manufacturing change that does not impact quality or efficacy.
• Moving to higher quality packaging materials that improve the risk profile.

Veterinary medicines

• Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient manufacturer changes (e.g., site, specifications, methods, test methods).
• Minor changes to finished product test procedures or manufacturing processes.
• Packaging upgrades that do not increase risk.
• Review of veterinary medicine Product Data Sheet (PDS) content.

Working groups will meet virtually and run for several months. We welcome interest from technical specialists, regulatory professionals, manufacturing experts, and others working in the ACVM sector.

To participate, please email ACVM.consultation@mpi.govt.nz with your contact details, relevant experience, and topic(s) you wish to contribute to. Depending on the level of interest, ACVM may need to shortlist.

Expressions of interest are open from now until 2 April 2026.

Inhibitor update

The next (and 12^th) Inhibitor Operational Forum, our regular forum with the sector discussing the regulatory systems for environmental inhibitors, will be held at Te Iho in Wellington on 2 April from 1pm to 4pm. Members and observers should already have this in their diaries. If you don’t or you are involved in environmental inhibitor development and would like to participate, please contact Mark Aspin (mark.aspin@mpi.govt.nz) to discuss and receive an invite.

ACVM has completed the targeted consultation for The Efficacy and Plant Safety of Urease/nitrification Inhibitor Products Guidance document, and this will be updated and published on the webpage this month. 

Antimicrobial Resistance team update

Antibiotic sales reporting for 2025 for Antibiotic trade name product registrants

Reporting antibiotics sales for 2025 closed on Friday 13 March. If you haven’t sent your report in yet, please do this as soon as possible so the AMR team can start preparing the 2025 report.

AMR research forum

The first AMR research forum was held on Monday, 23 February, with a focus on AMR in wastewater. If you would like to join the next AMR research forum, or you have a topic you would like to present, contact the AMR team to be added to the mailing list on AMRteam@mpi.govt.nz.

AMR Audits

The AMR team continues the AMR audit programme, with audits of veterinary clinics underway. The team is also working on a summary of the audit findings so far.  

Compliance update

ACVM Regulatory Programmes received 28 reports of potential or confirmed non-compliant ACVM products and activities in February 2026, of which:

• 32% were complaints of potentially non-compliant, exempt or unregistered ACVM products being advertised and/or sold.
• 25% were complaints of potentially non-compliant ACVM registered products being advertised and/or sold.
• 25% were international notifications of rapid alerts, recalls or GMP non-compliance reports, the majority of which did not affect ACVM products in New Zealand.
• 18% were notifications of non-complying batches of ACVM registered products released or yet to be released to the market.

There have been 40 events received up to March 2026:

ACVM applications approved in February 2026

The ACVM Register is publicly accessible and allows you to search for any registered veterinary medicines, agricultural chemicals, and vertebrate toxic agents. This includes specific registered trade-name products and their conditions of use; recent new product registrations; and suspended, cancelled or de-registered registrations.

Agricultural chemicals application update

 As of the end of February, there were:

• 55 applications in the queue
• 64 applications in appraisal

In the queue, there are:

• 30 new-product applications (16 A-Type & 14 B-Type)
• 20 use-change applications
• 5 deviation applications

There are no chemistry and manufacturing variation applications in the queue.

Veterinary medicine application update

As of the end of February, there were:

• 69 applications in the queue 
• 103 applications in appraisal 

In the queue, there are: 

• 20 new-product applications (13 A-Type & 7 B-Type) 
• 12 use-change applications 
• 31 chemistry and manufacturing variation applications
• 3 deviation applications 
• 3 operating plans

Veterinary medicine pharmacovigilance guidance update

A new version of “Veterinary Medicines Pharmacovigilance Programme: Adverse Event Reporting and ACVM Act Risk Area Notifications” has been published on our webpage. The updated document, along with all other adverse event guidance and forms can be found here: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/agriculture/agricultural-compounds-vet-medicines/adverse-events-with-acvms

Key updates to the guidance include:

• Clarification of location data reporting requirements (section 7.1)
• Updates to standard process and new process for flea product reporting (section 7.5)

As per the updates to section 7.1, registrants are reminded that, regardless of whether reporters’ contact details are not provided or withheld, the location (at minimum the region, postcode or city) where the event occurred must be disclosed with all reports filed. MPI use the following regions for reporting purposes:

• Northland
• Auckland
• Waikato
• Gisborne
• Bay of Plenty
• Hawke's Bay
• Taranaki
• Manawatu - Wanganui
• Wellington
• Nelson
• Marlborough
• West Coast
• Otago
• Canterbury
• Southland

Please ensure all future adverse events submitted to MPI comply with these requirements.

Packaging requirements for ACVM registered products

ACVM reminds registrants that products registered under section 21 of the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act 1997 are required to comply with the conditions of registration applied under section 23 of the Act. This includes the requirement that all ACVM registered products are manufactured and labelled in accordance with the product and manufacturing specifications approved as part of registration, with use of only the packaging materials and closure systems approved for the registration.

Where changes or alternative arrangements are required to maintain the continued supply and availability of products to meet user needs, registrants are encouraged to engage early with ACVM. In many cases, there are regulatory pathways available to support necessary variations while maintaining appropriate regulatory oversight.

Depending on the circumstances, this may include:

• variations to approved registration particulars, or
• batch specific variations (BSVs), where defined, non-complying batch/s require approval to be released to the New Zealand market in exceptional circumstances. (Guidance on BSVs is available here: Guideline for Registrants: Request to release your non-complying batch of an ACVM registered product (Batch Specific Variation - BSV).

Where ACVM approval is required for an alternative (for example, changes to packaging, packaging components, manufacturing sites, or batch specific non compliances), registrants are encouraged to contact ACVM directly (approvals@mpi.govt.nz) or to speak with the relevant manager (Agricultural chemicals - Amanda.McKay@mpi.govt.nz or Veterinary medicines - Alison.Weaver@mpi.govt.nz). Early engagement allows ACVM to discuss options and, where appropriate, support expedited assessment and processing.

Registrants are also reminded that there is flexibility within the ACVM framework to deviate from standard information and data requirements where ACVM accepts alternative and equally suitable information, evidence, data or technical justification in support of the variation application. The level and type of information required will be considered on a case-by-case basis, proportionate to the nature and risk of the proposed change.

ACVM remains committed to working collaboratively with registrants to support regulatory compliance and the continued supply of products.

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Contact us

ACVM Team, Assurance, New Zealand Food Safety Haumaru Kai Aotearoa

Pastoral House, 25 The Terrace, PO Box 2526, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

Email approvals@mpi.govt.nz  

Website Agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines (ACVM) | Agriculture | NZ Government (mpi.govt.nz)

Subscribe to ‘Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines’ and ‘ACVM recalls’ on the Ministry for Primary Industries website to receive email updates on matters relating to ACVM.