Restricted animal material

Feeding controls are in place to protect our valuable livestock industry and make sure it delivers healthy produce. Under the Australian Ruminant Feed Ban, it is illegal to feed restricted animal material (RAM) to livestock.

This is defined as any material taken from a vertebrate animal, other than tallow, gelatine, milk products or oils. It includes rendered products such as:

  • blood meal
  • meat meal
  • meat and bone meal
  • fish meal
  • poultry meal
  • eggs
  • feather meal
  • compounded feeds made from these products.

RAM is also all food and waste products that may have had contact with animal matter.

Feeding RAM to ruminant livestock is the most likely way to cause significant disease outbreaks, such as foot-and-mouth disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The ban relates to cattle, sheep, goats, and deer.

There are separate feeding requirements under prohibited pig feed.

Don’t feed these to livestock

Animal products

  • Meat scraps or trimmings
  • offal
  • blood
  • bone
  • carcasses
  • eggs.

Contaminated foods

Anything that may have had contact with meat products, including:

  • used cooking oils or fats that are untreated
  • fruit or vegetables
  • pizzas and breads.

Food scraps or rubbish

Waste products from:

  • bakeries
  • restaurants and cafés
  • supermarkets
  • food processing or manufacturing plants
  • private residences
  • rubbish dumps.

Livestock illness

If your animals are sick, contact a veterinarian early to:

  • confirm an outbreak
  • control disease spread
  • protect livestock industries.

If your animals show sign of an unusual illness, or die unexpectedly, immediately call the below hotline.

Emergency Animal Disease Hotline

Suspected disease or pests in livestock, poultry or aquatic animals must be reported immediately.

Call us to help stop the spread of animal illness, even if you are unsure of the disease.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Freecall 1800 675 888
Page last reviewed: 29 Jan 2024

 


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