Upcoming ACVM events and meetings

ACVM Workshops 
Registrations have closed for the ACVM Annual Workshop and ACVM 101 Workshop on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 June 2025. A detailed agenda for the ACVM 101 workshop can be found on the Eventbrite website. Thanks to those who have registered for the events. We look forward to seeing you there.

Staff updates

Staff movements
The Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) team sadly farewelled Stacey Northover, who departed from the team last month. Stacey joined the ACVM team in May 2023, from a management role in at a veterinary laboratory and was an integral part of our team as Team Manager Assessments – Veterinary Medicines. We wish her the very best for the future and her pursuit of other endeavours. 

Sadly, the ACVM team will also farewell Richard McKinley on the 27 June. Richard has been providing expert support and input into the ACVM Veterinary Medicines team, and the wider ACVM work programme, in various capacities for many years. The scope and value of his contributions to the ACVM team over the years has been significant, particularly his efforts to support the development of new advisers within the Veterinary Medicines team, as the team has expanded and welcomed several new staff over the past two to three years. We wish Richard all the best for his next adventure.

ACVM Workshop: Minor uses of agricultural chemicals 
The ACVM team recently held a workshop on better ways to facilitate minor use of agricultural chemicals. Attendees included representatives from the horticulture industry, agrichemical industry, Animal Plant Health New Zealand and the Environmental Protection Authority. Presentations by Warren Hughes (Principal Adviser, ACVM) and Sarah Lester (Specialist Adviser Agricultural Chemical Regulation & Residues, ACVM) included the current regulations and minor use situations, followed by a presentation from Qinhua Shen (HortNZ) on the issue from their perspective. Horticultural crops are often considered ‘minor’ and consequently do not have a large toolbox of on-label uses. The workshop was well received and resulted in several suggestions for further work or investigation. 

Self-assessed non-ACVM label changes 
A reminder that if changes are made to non-ACVM label content (for example, because of other legislation such as the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, or marketing/commercial purposes), these can be updated on the marketed label without an application or notification to ACVM, provided they do not impact the ACVM label content. These changes should be included in the next variation/registration renewal. However, if you would like the amended label to be uploaded to the ACVM website sooner, you can notify these self-assessed changes to the ACVM team. 

AMR team update

New NZFS AMR (antimicrobial resistance) Award
Entries for the AMR (antimicrobial resistance) Award are open! Sponsored by New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS), the new award aims to recognise and celebrate people and groups who are championing the fight against antimicrobial resistance. We are aware there are some great initiatives being taken to reduce AMR risks and antibiotic use, and the award will showcase these while raising AMR awareness. 

The AMR Award recognises individuals, teams, or organisations making a real difference in reducing AMR risks in New Zealand. Their work might include:

• spreading awareness about AMR
• preventing and controlling disease
• using strong biosecurity practices
• creating animal or plant health programmes to reduce the need for antibiotics
• promoting responsible antibiotic use
• reducing unnecessary antibiotic use

Nominations close at 5pm on 27 September 2025 with the winner announced during World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week, 18-24 November 2025.

For more information about the award, visit the award webpage.

Inhibitor update

Registrations and engagement
One urease inhibitor has been registered – SustaiN. Two other urease inhibitor applications and one methane inhibitor application are currently being processed. The ACVM team has engaged with and discussed registration with 13 companies considering registration.

The Regulatory Systems (Primary Industries) Amendment Bill has moved through the second reading and is expected to be passed in 2025. The Bill amends the definition of an agricultural compound to include inhibitors. The current deadline for inhibitor products to be registered is 1 July 2026. This deadline may change depending on when the amendments to the ACVM Act are signed into law, with a transition period of 12 months from that date. The ACVM team will confirm and notify if this date does change.

Inhibitor Operational Forum
The latest Inhibitor Operational Forum (IOF) meeting was held on Wednesday, 2 April 2025, with 45 people attending. The meeting included a presentation by Dr David Pacheco, New Zealand Agricultural Research Centre, on the technical guidelines to develop and implement anti-methanogenic feed additives. The six publications within this review are published in a special issue of the Journal of Dairy Science. The next IOF meeting will be on Wednesday, 30 July 2025. If you would like more information about the IOF, please contact mark.aspin@mpi.govt.nz. 

Methane efficacy guidelines consultation
The ACVM team is currently reviewing the methane efficacy guidelines to incorporate the use of qualitative efficacy label claims. A targeted consultation on the guidance ran for six weeks and closed on Friday, 9 May 2025. We received eight submissions, which are now being collated and the guidance is being refreshed in response. The refreshed guidance document is expected to be released in July 2025. 

Compliance update

ACVM compliance received 30 reports of potential or confirmed non-compliant ACVM products and activities in May, and 147 reports have been received to date:

Agricultural chemicals application update

As of the 30 May, there were:

• 37 applications in the queue
• 82 applications in appraisal

In the queue, there are:

• 20 new product applications (12 A-Type and 8 B-Type)
• 12 new use or use change applications
• 4 deviation application
• 1 data assessment

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

Veterinary medicine application update

As of the 30 May, there were:

• 32 applications in the queue
• 105 applications in appraisal (this includes 39 C10 re-assessment applications)
• 4 applications were referred to Biosecurity New Zealand for biosecurity approval.

In the queue, there are:

• 15 new product applications (8 A-Type and 7 B-Type)
• 7 new use or use change applications
• 9 chemistry and manufacturing variation applications
• 1 operating plan application.

ACVM applications approved in May 2025

ACVM application assessments continue to be a key focus, with both assessments teams carefully managing the priorities and allocation of Advisers to ensure that the technical screening of incoming applications is completed each week. In this way, progress continues to be made on in-progress technical assessments of applications, and new assessments are commenced as others are completed.

Approvals team tips

If you have any questions for one of our team, check out our website in the first instance. If you need to contact us directly, please email approvals@mpi.govt.nz or call our Approvals phoneline on 04 894 2550.

Also please remember that we now handle class determinations through ACVM Approvals Online, so any supporting information for your application needs to be submitted online.

ACVM annual levy update reminder

As a critical part of New Zealand’s food safety system, NZFS provides a range of vital services to businesses to help manage risks to human and animal health. The costs of this have accumulated over time.

After consultation in 2024 with businesses with registered products under the ACVM Act, the Government agreed to update the ACVM annual levy with a stepped increase in July 2024 and again in July 2025. The increase reflects the cost of maintaining ACVM regulatory services.

This is a reminder that the annual levy will change to this stepped increase of $1,199 (excl GST) on 1 July 2025.

The levy applies to registered products under the ACVM Act. MPI notifies registration holders about reviewing and deregistering products each year. The cut-off date for requesting de-registration of products is Friday, 13 June 2025.

If you hold a registration and would like to review or deregister products from MPI, or if you have any queries, please contact approvals@mpi.govt.nz.

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.