Antimicrobial resistance
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when germs (bacteria, fungi, or viruses) no longer respond to medicines. Resistant micro-organisms can spread between humans, animals and the environment. MPI's Animal and Plant Sectors' Antimicrobial Resistance Implementation Plan includes goals and deliverables for MPI and the animal and plant sectors to help reduce AMR risks.
These goals include surveillance of bacteria associated with animals for AMR, with respect to antibiotics, and the monitoring of annual sales of horticultural and veterinary products containing antibiotics which are reported on this interactive dashboard.
Outbreaks
Cases where increased disease incidence has been confirmed on a farm, in a district, or region. Alternatively, when unusual or noteworthy diseases have been identified.
Case descriptions are kindly provided by New Zealand based laboratories: INDEXX, SVS, Awanui Laboratory and the MPI Animal Health laboratory/Incursion team, with the support of submitting veterinarians and their clients.
In most cases a more detailed description of the cases is available in Surveillance published quarterly by MPI Biosecurity.
MPI monitors sales of horticultural and veterinary products containing antibiotics. Monitoring sales helps ensure regulatory controls on antibiotics are effective. MPI can also investigate any significant changes in antibiotic use.
This page reports the most recent antibiotic sales data.
Tip: Hover over the graphs for the percentage or number of isolates.
The graphs below illustrate the proportion of antibiotic sales for each species group, based on approved uses and registrants' estimates for each product. Sales by species are represented both in kgs and by mg of antibiotic per kg of liveweight.
Tracking antibiotic sales over time enables the identification of emerging trends.
A total of 37,858 kg of antibiotic active ingredients were sold in 2024, a decrease of 1,692 kg (4%) from 39,549 kg in 2023. This decrease continues the decline in total sales observed since 2017.
The 2024 sales analysis included three antibiotic classes – glycophospholipids, orthosomycins, and quinoxalines – which have not featured in previous years' sales reports.
Antibiotic sales over time by critically important antibiotic
The reporting of critically important antibiotics changed in 2024 to reflect the ACVM antibiotic importance classification. Gentamicin is now the only aminoglycoside considered as critically important.
The total quantity of critically important antibiotics sold in 2024 was 1,461 kg which remained relatively unchanged from 2023 when adjusted for the new aminoglycoside classification.
Antibiotic sales over time by animal species
Sales proportions by species group are calculated based on approved uses and registrant estimates. Some products are species-specific, while others are approved for multiple species, making intended use harder to determine. For these, registrants have provided annual estimates since 2020 to help clarify likely usage.
As part of New Zealand's response to the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, MPI's business unit, New Zealand Food Safety, monitors AMR in food production animals. The AMR surveillance programme currently includes poultry, pigs, and very young calves, with one species being surveyed each year in an ongoing programme. Previously, one-off AMR surveys have been conducted which provide baseline AMR data in these animals (AMR surveillance reports). Ad-hoc surveys are also conducted in other food production animals (e.g. lambs and dairy cattle).
The year sampling commenced for each animal species is shown in the graphics below.
This dashboard will be updated on the completion of the next animal species survey (pigs) with an upload date of approximately March 2026.
For all other details please refer to the specific AMR surveillance reports and their corresponding data files found under the AMR surveillance and monitoring tab on the AMR Team's website.
MPI is now tracking levels of fully susceptible, and multi-drug resistant pathogens from each animal species. Currently, these data are only available for poultry and lamb. As new surveys are conducted, more data will become available. For the MDR definition please see the Poultry report, published in 2025. Complete data and antibiotic panels are available in the various AMR surveillance reports found under the AMR surveillance and monitoring tab on the AMR Team's website.
Resistance data are available for key pathogens isolated from each animal species.
Resistance data are calculated using the latest breakpoints as described in the respective AMR surveillance reports found under the AMR surveillance and monitoring tab on the AMR Team's website.
For temporal resistance comparisons, breakpoints were retrospectively recalculated where required, as detailed in the respective AMR surveillance reports found under the AMR surveillance and monitoring tab on the AMR Team's website.
Use this section to compare bacterial antibiotic resistance between animals where antibiotic resistance data are available. Note - when viewing these data, dairy cattle, very young calves and lamb data will not have any historical breakpoints retrospectively recalculated. When the next surveys are uploaded for these animals, older data will be updated with respect to breakpoints where applicable.
The analysis of diagnostic laboratory records provides a passive surveillance system to monitor for AMR associated with animals. This dashboard includes antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) results of bacteria cultured from animal samples submitted by veterinarians to three commercial veterinary diagnostic laboratories in New Zealand.
Data are uploaded to the dashboard quarterly and have been collected since June 2023.
This dashboard reports data from which we will monitor trends in antimicrobial resistance in key bacterial species for companion and production animals. The information should not be used for clinical decision making. The veterinary surveillance programme is subject to many biases (geographical, socioeconomic, environmental, animals that have not responded to previous antibiotic treatment, and differing production systems). Most importantly it collates data from a diverse range of disease presentations.
Using the filters below, you can explore levels of resistance in various bacteria isolated from different animal species with different presenting signs.
Tip: Use the isolate/percentage filter to toggle between sample number and percentage. Hover your mouse over the graphs for the percentage or number of isolates.
Using the filters below you can compare resistance levels of a bacterial pathogen between animal species, or within an animal species in different regions or TLAs (Territorial Local Authorities).
Tip: hover your mouse over the graphs to see percentage and sample size (n).
Use the filters in the time series to view resistance patterns over time for various animal species and bacterial pathogens. You can select up to 6 antibiotics at a time to view changes in resistance since June 2023.