Prioritising veterinary drug residues: for monitoring in aquaculture, farmed game, rabbits and honey

Risk-based monitoring of veterinary drug residues requires a prioritisation based on the potential occurrenceof these residues as well as their human health effects. Previously, decision trees have been drafted to include these elements allowing for a prioritization of substances into low, medium or high priority to be included in the National Residue Control Plan (NRCP). One decision tree focuses on unauthorised substances (group A) and another on authorised substances (group B). These decision trees have been used previouslyto prioritise veterinary drug residues in livestock production animals. The aim of the current research was to rank the substances for products derived from aquaculture, farmed game, rabbits and honey. The latest draft Implementing Regulation available at the time of the research (i.e. SANTE 11987-2017 Rev 9) was used to determine which substance groups for which animal species needed to be included in the NRCP. Available monitoring data from national monitoring, the rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF) andEFSA reports were used as input for the prioritisation. Furthermore, potential use of veterinary drugs was assessed based on regulations in relevant import countries, availability of VMP online and internet research on potential use in the specified animal species (e.g. based on internet fora). The current evaluation revealed that limited monitoring data were available for the animal products studied in comparison to the earlier studied animal species. This resulted in a high number (59% of all substance-animal product combinations)of unauthorised substances prioritised as medium or high for precautionary reasons (marked with a proviso). Likewise, for the authorised substances, the conclusion for many substances (77%) was to perform a survey since data were lacking. For 28% of these substances, internet search indicated a potential use and for 1.5%of these substances non-compliances were found in related species.According to the latest draft of the Implementing Regulation, insects are to be monitored on veterinary drugresidues as well. However, a prioritisation of substances for this animal species was not possible due to a lack of data. Literature review and also results of WFSR experiments show however that veterinary drugresidues can transmit from substrate into insects. The review also revealed that currently no approved treatment options are available to fight potential health and pest problems in insect rearing. Since insect rearing is a growing industry, this requires further attention. It is recommended to include substances with a medium or high priority in the NCRP and to perform dedicated surveys for substance-animal product combinations with limiting monitoring data, to allow for a definite conclusion. Furthermore, it is recommended to regularly update the prioritisation to include the latest available (monitoring) data.