Report for 2018 on the results from the monitoring of veterinary medicinal product residues and other substances in live animals and animal products

The report summarises the monitoring data collected in 2018 on the presence of residues of veterinary medicinal products and certain substances in live animals and animal products in the European Union. A total of 657,818 samples were reported to the European Commission by the 28 EU Member States. They consisted of 354,517 targeted samples and 5,095 suspect samples reported under Council Directive 96/23/EC, and of 3,022 samples collected at import and 295,184 samples collected in the framework of programmes developed under the national legislation. The majority of Member States fulfilled the minimum requirements for sampling frequency laid down in Council Directive 96/23/EC and in Commission Decision 97/747/EC. Overall, the percentage of non‐compliant samples in 2018(0.30%) was comparable to the previous 10 years (0.25%‐0.37%), althoughslightly lower compared to 2017 (0.35%). Compared to the results from 2017, in 2018the frequency of non‐compliant results was slightly increased for antithyroid agents, steroids, and ‘others’. Slight decreases were noted forantibacterials, anthelmintics, non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs, ‘other pharmacologically active substances’, organochlorine compounds, chemical elements, mycotoxins and dyes. For the other substance groups, there were no notable variations.