Ruminant feed ban to guard against BSE risk
From the September 2008 edition of Agriculture Today.
Stock feed is a major input in the production of quality red meat.
"All players involved in the red meat industry, especially those responsible for sourcing, mixing, storing, and handling stock feed, or feeding stock, need to ensure they understand and comply with the ruminant feed ban," biological and chemical risk management veterinary officer, Lee Cook, said.
The key elements of the ban are to purchase and use only feeds free of restricted animal material (or RAM) and to ensure no feed cross contamination occurs on farm or elsewhere.
The ruminant feed ban, prohibiting the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle and sheep, has been in place since 1996 to help prevent the introduction and spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and scrapie in sheep or goats throughout Australia.
It ensures Australia has preferred access to many international markets concerned about the supply of safe food and keeps its enviable clean and green reputation for red meat exports.
The ban prohibits feeding defined restricted animal material to cattle, sheep and goats as well as any other ruminant livestock species.
RAM includes meat, meat and bone meal, blood meal, poultry offal or feather meal, fishmeal and any other animal meal.
The ban does not include tallow (as defined), gelatine, milk and milk products.
These products are not considered RAM and may be used in ruminant feed.
Used cooking oil, provided it has been processed and tested to contain no more than two per cent moisture and insoluble impurities and is filtered to remove all visible solids, is also defined as tallow and may then be fed.
Quality assurance schemes such as Livestock Production Assurance require red meat producers to keep a record of their compliance with the ban.
All producers should insist on commodity vendor declarations from suppliers of stock feed ingredients and check that transporters are cleaning their equipment between jobs.
On-farm mixers should make sure that all containers, machinery, augers and feed areas are cleaned thoroughly to prevent cross-contamination.
This is especially true if the farm also mixes feed for poultry or pigs which are legally allowed to be fed on RAM meat meal.
Other activities to prevent BSE in NSW include targeted surveillance of diseased animals, imported animal quarantine and surveillance, research and development and communications.
All these activities are intended to safe-guard the future of the industry which is heavily reliant on export markets.
As seen with the BSE cases in Canada and the US, export markets such as Japan would cease importing Australian products if BSE/scrapie was confirmed here.
Visit www.animalhealthaustralia.com.au/programs/adsp/tsefap/tsefap_home.cfm for more about Australia’s BSE related activities.
