Witholding periods and export intervals

Filling out and signing National Vendor Declaration (NVD) forms are regular and mandatory tasks for anyone selling cattle or sheep, whether publically or privately.

One question on the NVD asks, “Are any of the cattle in this consignment still within a Withholding Period (WHP) or Export

Slaughter Interval (ESI) following treatment with any veterinary drug or chemical?” Producers must answer Yes or No.

Checks on stock health records and labels on recently administered products mean producers can select “no.”

However, sometimes they may be selling a breeding bull or breeding heifers to another producer, or despatching steers or

heifers to a specific store cattle or weaner calf sale that are not going directly into the meat processing chain.

If these animals have been treated with a veterinary product and are still within a WHP or ESI, this information must be disclosed on your NVD and a signed, dated statement from the purchaser accepting the stock is also necessary.

Clearly write the name of the product, date of treatment the WHP and ESI on the NVD.

Check the label on the product container and record both the WHP and the ESI regardless of which market the animals are destined.

In order to be sure, if the ESI is not quoted on the label, or the product label is unclear, it is recommended to check the most up-to-date version of the product ESI and WHP of veterinary chemicals for use in cattle and sheep.

This information plus more and definitions of chemical WHP and ESI can be accessed through the Australian Pesticides

and Veterinary Medicines Authority which is found at www.apvma.gov.au.

An Export Slaughter Interval (ESI) is the minimum time that should elapse between administration of a veterinary chemical to animals and their slaughter for export.

ESIs manage differences between Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) allowed for chemicals in Australia and the MRLs of its trading partners.

ESI advice is particularly important for quality assurance schemes, and especially for producers filling out the National

Vendor Declaration (NVD) forms as part of the whole-of-chain management of exported product.

ESIs have been agreed to by the cattle industry and the registrant of the veterinary chemical.

The Withholding Period (WHP) is the minimum period which must elapse between last administration or application of a veterinary chemical product, including treated feed, and the slaughter, collection, harvesting or use of the animal commodity for human consumption.

WHP statements are mandatory for domestic slaughter and are on the label of every registered product.

The APVMA regularly updates this include new, or revised, ESIs. list to