Australian Ruminant Feed Ban

Australia has an inclusive ban on the feeding to all ruminants of all meals, including meat and bone meal (MBM) derived from all vertebrates, including fish and birds. The current ban was established by statutory laws in each of Australia's jurisdictions and enforced by official inspections and audits, which also take into account quality assurance schemes that operate within Australia's ruminant livestock industries. This acts as a fail-safe control measure to rule out the possibility that feeding will amplify the BSE agent in the unlikely event that it is introduced to Australia.

A voluntary ban on the feeding of ruminant material to ruminants was adopted in Australia in 1996 to minimise the risk of recycling the BSE agent if it were introduced. This was a preliminary step towards laws to prohibit the feeding of ruminant material to ruminants. These laws were enacted in all of Australia's jurisdictions in 1997. In 1999, the prohibition was extended to the feeding of specified mammalian materials to ruminants. In March 2001, agricultural ministers agreed to introduce uniform legislation in all States and Territories to extend this prohibition to include a ban on the feeding of meals containing 'only porcine, equine, or macropod materials; blood and blood products; inspected meat products (that have been cooked and offered for human food and further heat processed into animal food); poultry (offal and feather) meals; and fish meals'. Following on from this decision all States and Territories have adopted in their respective legislation the term 'restricted animal material' (RAM) to describe animal meals that cannot be fed to ruminants, being any meal derived from animal origin including fish and birds.

Definition of RAM

Restricted Animal Material (RAM) is any material taken from a vertebrate animal other than tallow, gelatin, milk products or oils extracted from poultry and fish. It includes rendered products such as blood meal, meat meal, meat and bone meal, fish meal, poultry meal, feather meal, and compounded feeds made from these products.

Tallow is defined as:
"any product  (not limiting to but including products known as tallow, yellow grease and acid oil), containing rendered fats and oils from any animal, or used cooking oil filtered or otherwise treated to remove visible particulate matter, and which complies with a specification of 2% maximum M+I (moisture plus insoluble impurities) as measured by American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS) official methods^[1]"

To ensure Australia has effective feed ban control measures, it was agreed at the March 2001 meeting of the Agricultural and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand that audits be undertaken by all jurisdictions to verify compliance with feed ban legislation by all parties from manufacture to end-use. Prior to these jurisdictional audits, four national audits of the ruminant feed ban were conducted in Australia (see Audit Results section).

A uniform national approach to compliance inspection and auditing provides the greatest assurance of compliance with regulatory controls and that national and international requirements will be met.

Australia's enforceable bans on the feeding of restricted animal material (RAM) to ruminant animals are part of a comprehensive national TSE Freedom Assurance Program. The ruminant feed ban is supported by the following mechanisms:

• Quarantine measures to prevent entry into the country of the BSE agent. Since 1966, the importation of MBM into Australia has been prohibited from all countries other than New Zealand, which is also free of animal TSEs.
  
• A comprehensive, risk-based compliance inspection program undertaken by State and Territory authorities that targets all sectors in the livestock feed chain from renderers, to stockfeed manufacturers, stockfeed resellers and end-users. The ongoing program is modified in light of non-conformities identified and corrective actions that have been implemented.
  
• A range of quality management and assurance measures implemented by the ruminant livestock and stockfeed manufacturing industries in Australia, which complement the official regulatory and compliance inspection program.
  
• Education and training programs to create awareness and develop the necessary competencies and capacity regarding the legislative rules on animal feed and TSEs. Training and education of relevant groups such as farmers, renderers, stockfeed manufacturers and resellers and statutory bodies is ongoing.

These programs constitute Australia's effective ruminant feed ban, as part of its control measures to prevent the entry and establishment of the BSE agent in this country.

A series of pamphlets advising the public of their commitment to the Ruminant Feed Ban have been produced. The pamphlets target the main three groups involved in the use of restricted animal material:

• Stockfeed manufacturers;
• Retailers of manufactured stockfeed and restricted animal material; and
• End users of manufactured stockfeed and restricted animal material.

These pamphlets are found below in easily downloadable PDF format. In addition to the pamphlets, a checklist has been produced that provides a record of any internal reviews the producer/lotfeeder may undertake of their quality/food safety system (ie LPA, NFAS).

Pamphlets

• Ruminant Feed Ban - Stock Feed Manufacturers (167 KB)
• Ruminant Feed Ban - Retailers (159 KB)
• Ruminant Feed Ban - Livestock Producers (169 KB)
• Ruminant Feed Ban - Producer Checklist (92 KB)

Import Controls

Biosecurity Australia is responsible for developing and reviewing biosecurity policies for the safe importation of animals and animal products. The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) provides quarantine inspection services for international passengers, cargo, mail, and animals and plants or their products arriving in Australia.

The importation into Australia of MBM, meat meal, greaves and stockfeeds of animal-derived materials (except materials such as milk and milk products) has been prohibited from all countries except New Zealand since 1966 (Proclamation 77A of the Quarantine Act, 28 July 1966).

The implementation of this policy has since been refined over time. The current Biosecurity Australia policy on Importation of stockfeed and stockfeed ingredients - finalised risk management measures for TSEs can be found at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website.

National Guidelines

Animal Health Committee (AHC - formerly Veterinary Committee) agreed in October 2001 to establish a working group to develop national inspection guidelines for determining compliance with Australia's ruminant feed ban.

The working group developed national guidelines for inspection of establishments that take into account quarantine controls on imported stockfeeds and industry QA systems. The guidelines were finally adopted by Veterinary Committee in October 2002 as the First Edition of the National uniform guidelines for ensuring compliance (with the Australian Ruminant Feed Ban) through inspection/sampling and testing programs (generally referred to as the National Uniform Guidelines) and implemented as a program of regular, scheduled jurisdictional inspections from 2003.

The guidelines provide a basis for each State and Territory to participate in a nationally consistent program of inspection for compliance with the legislative provisions of their respective ruminant feed bans. Such a nationally consistent compliance inspection program in concert with other programs, including quarantine import control measures and industry QA systems contribute in a meaningful way to Australia maintaining an effective feed-ban. The guideline document is a comprehensive document that also provides detailed history and objectives of Australia's ruminant feed ban.

A new working group was formed under TSEFAP to review the National Uniform Guidelines with the aim of increasing the consistency of approach to ruminant feed ban compliance and reporting activities in the States and Territories. Changes to the required levels of inspection and sampling were developed by the group and are incorporated into this National Uniform Guidelines (949 KB) . These were endorsed by AHC in October 2004, and were implemented before the end of that year.

Legislation and QA Framework

The ruminant feed ban is enshrined in legislation in each of Australia's 8 States and Territories and underpinned by third party audited, industry based quality assurance programs. The legislation and quality assurance programs cover all facets of the extended industry, from on-farm to the rendering of material to the importation of stock feeds. A summary of Australian State and Territory legislation regulating the feedban is listed below.

It is mandatory in Australia for rendered animal proteins to be produced in accordance with the Australian Standard for Hygienic Rendering of Animal Products. The standard requires that all rendering plants implement ISO 9000 aligned quality management systems and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans and the labelling of rendered products in accordance with legal requirements.

Industry, through the SFMCA, has implemented FeedSafe as a HACCP-based QA program on an individual site basis. In achieving FeedSafe accreditation, feed manufacturing sites are required to address the elements of the Code of Good Manufacturing Practice for the Feed Milling Industry, particularly methods to ensure effective cleaning, flushing and sequencing between different types of stockfeeds to minimise the possibility of cross-contamination. FeedSafe utilises independent third party site audits to verify compliance with the Code of Good Manufacturing Practice for the Feed Milling Industry.

A number of livestock based quality assurance programs operate that brings together the legislation and practical approach to the feeding of stock. These programs include the Livestock Production Assurance and both CATTLECARE and FLOCKCARE for the producer sector and the National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme (NFAS) for the feedlot sector. These quality assurance programs are both ISO9000 and HACCP based. Each program links the legislation to the action being implemented at the farm or feedlot. Other schemes that include the requirements of the ruminant feed ban are National Vendor Declarations and the Livestock Product Assurance program. Further details are available in the national guidelines document.

Audit Results

Since it is necessary to confirm that the ruminant feed bans are properly implemented and to identify any non-compliance, Australia's Commonwealth Government has conducted four national audits in collaboration with State and Territory authorities and in accordance with the feeding restrictions that applied at the time. The first audit was conducted in 1998, the second from February to May 2000, the third in early 2001, and the fourth in late 2001.

Audits were conducted on samples from each sector of the ruminant livestock industry. A statistically based random selection process was employed and was designed to detect a 1% non-compliance rate at the 95% confidence level. The sample included farms (dairy farms, sheep feedlots and beef feedlots), rendering establishments, stockfeed manufacturers and stockfeed resellers.

The audits found that, although compliance levels were generally satisfactory, some areas needed improvement. The instances of non-compliance related to labelling and understanding of the legislation. It is important to note that audits detected no instances of mammalian material being included in ruminant feeds. These audits demonstrated a continual improvement in compliance with the legislative requirements in all sectors of the ruminant livestock industry. Active and ongoing education programs conducted by State and Territory authorities and industry supported the audit process. The aim was to ensure that all sectors of this industry fully understand the implication and implementation of the ruminant feed bans.

Since 2003, these national audits have now been superseded by the established program of audits contained in the national guidelines. A specific number of audits is scheduled well into the future. The numbers of establishments to be audited is contained in the national guidelines, as detailed below.

Renderers and Stockfeed manufacturers (audit frequency for each establishment).

In addition, 307 stockfeed retailers and 300 farms are audited every two years, with the number of audits being distributed between Australia's States and Territories based on their cattle populations.

The results of these audits have shown that there is an extremely high level of compliance with Australia's ruminant feed ban. Instances of non-compliance invariably relate to minor matters such as labelling.

This site will be further developed in the future to provide more detailed audit results.

^[1]AOCS official methods for determining M+I are described at the following website, and full details can be purchased here: http://www.aocs.org/tech/onlinemethods/. The relevant tests are for "moisture and volatile matter; hot plate method" and "insoluble impurities" and are conducted sequentially, with the results of the two tests being added to obtain the total M+I. NATA laboratory accreditation for conducting these tests is available in Australia. 

Page Updated: 21 May 2009