68108 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister for Food Safety

68108 (2024). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister for Food Safety: What progress, if any, has been made in the quarter April to June 2024 to ‘Establish a programme of regularly monitoring the controls on antimicrobial veterinary medicines’ under ‘Objective 4: Antimicrobial stewardship’ within the New Zealand Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan 2017?

Hon Andrew Hoggard: Total sales of veterinary and horticultural antibiotics in New Zealand are down for a sixth year running, see more here: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-releases/sales-of-antibiotics-used-in-animals-and-plants-down-for-sixth-year-in-a-row/. I am advised that all activities for the animal and plant sectors under the Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan 2017 have been incorporated in ‘The New Zealand Animal and Plant Sectors' Antimicrobial Resistance Implementation Plan 2024 – 2028’. This can be accessed on the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) website here: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/65079-New-Zealand-Animal-and-Plant-Sectors-Antimicrobial-Resistance-Implementation-Plan-2024-2028. In the quarter April to June 2024, the document ‘Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Antibiotic Importance Classification’ was being drafted and has since been published. This can be accessed on MPI’s website here: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/65487-Agricultural-Compounds-and-Veterinary-Medicines-Antibiotic-Importance-Classification. During this quarter, tranche 2 of the reassessment of all antimicrobial agricultural compounds began and is led by MPI.