Ruminant Feed Ban
Video transcript: Restricted Animal Material
Did you know that diseases can spread to your animals through certain foods?
Australia is free from mad cow disease and scrapie
These and other diseases could seriously affect your livestock and may affect your health.
It's why Australia has banned feeding of Restricted Animal Material to ruminants.
Restricted Animal Material is any material that consists of, or contains, matter from an animal, including fish and birds.
It also includes eggs, untreated cooking oils, poultry litter and other manures.
It does not include gelatin, milk or milk products.
Diseases can still be found in products that have been processed, even if they have been chilled, frozen, cooked or cured.
Pastures which have had manures and poultry litter applied must not be accessed by ruminants for at least 3 weeks before grazing.
Ensure you do not mix Restricted Animal Material and non-restricted animal material feed, and ruminants do not have access to feeds containing Restricted Animal Material, for example chicken or dog feed.
We can all play a part in preventing animal diseases by feeding animals the right foods to keep them healthy.
Find out more about what you can and cannot feed your animals on Agriculture Victoria's website agriculture.vic.gov.au/RAM.
Authorised by the Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne.
What is the Ruminant Feed Ban?
The feeding of Restricted Animal Material to ruminants is banned throughout Australia. The ban is uniformly enforced through regulatory compliance and industry QA programs supported by appropriate screening and confirmatory tests.
Find out more about the Ruminant Feed Ban.
Why is the Ruminant Feed Ban so important?
Victoria, and Australia, enjoy a global reputation for being free of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and other Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs).
The Ruminant Feed Ban, and its enforcement, serves to protect public and animal health and Australia’s trade interests. It helps mitigate animal and human health risks from BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease, and other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which can be spread between animals and humans (Creutzfeld-Jakob disease) through the feeding of Restricted Animal Material (RAM), such as meat and bone meal, to ruminants.
Stock food manufacturers, sellers of stock food, and livestock producers need to be mindful of the need to protect our BSE free status by rigorous adherence to the Ruminant Feed Ban.
What is Restricted Animal Material?
Restricted Animal Material (RAM) is any material taken from a vertebrate animal, other than gelatin, milk products, oils extracted from fish, mineralised sea bird guano, treated tallow or treated cooking oil. It includes rendered products such as blood meal, meat meal, meat and bone meal, fish meal, poultry meal and feather meal, and compounded feeds made from these products. Eggs are classed as RAM and must not be fed to ruminants.
What livestock must not be fed Restricted Animal Material?
Ruminants are animals that chew the cud, such as cattle, sheep, goats, deer, buffalos, camels, camelids and other cloven–hoofed species.
Why is the feeding of Restricted Animal Material to ruminants banned?
Australia is free from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and other Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs).
The Ruminant Feed Ban, and its enforcement, serves to ensure that if the BSE disease agent were ever introduced to Australia it would not be able to be amplified and establish a cycle of infection.
The principal rationale for the Ruminant Feed Ban is the protection of public and animal health, and the interests of trade.
Why is the Ruminant Feed Ban important for trade?
Continued access to export markets for beef and a range of related livestock products depends upon the continued implementation of a wide range of activities to ensure that recognition of BSE free status is maintained. Many of these activities, including the Ruminant Feed Ban, are based on the requirements and recommendations of international bodies such as the World Organisation for Animal Health and World Health Organisation.
What are the responsibilities of manufacturers, suppliers and sellers of stock food?
Manufacturers, suppliers, and sellers of stock food or meal of animal origin, containing Restricted Animal Material, are required to correctly label all products:
This product contains restricted animal material - DO NOT FEED TO CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, DEER OR OTHER RUMINANTS.
Manufactured stock foods that do not contain Restricted Animal Material must be labelled:
This product does not contain Restricted Animal Material.
For more information, please refer to the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) (Ruminant Feed) Regulations 2025.
What are the responsibilities of end users of stock food?
Livestock producers, or anyone who uses stock food, must not feed Restricted Animal Material, compounded feed or meal containing Restricted Animal Material to ruminants.
If a product label states, This product contains restricted animal material - DO NOT FEED TO CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, DEER OR OTHER RUMINANTS, then it must not be fed to cattle, sheep, goats, dear or other ruminants.
End users must prevent exposure of ruminants to Restricted Animal Material at all times.
What legislation applies in Victoria?
Victoria has had a legislated Ruminant Feed Ban since 1996.
The ban is given effect by an Order made by the Minister for Agriculture under the Agriculture and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992. The Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) (Ruminant Feed) Regulations 2025 set out the legal requirements for labels or advice notes on stock food and meal of animal origin.
- Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992
- Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) (Ruminant Feed) Regulations 2025
- Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Infringement Notices) Regulations 2023
- Agricultural and Veterinary (Control of Use) (Infringement Notices) Amendment Regulations 2025
- Order Prohibiting the Feeding of Stock Food Containing Restricted Animal Material to Ruminants
- Notice for the Specification and Method of Measurement for Tallow and Used Cooking Oil for the Ruminant Feed Ban
How is compliance with the Ruminant Feed Ban monitored and enforced?
A comprehensive, risk-based compliance inspection and audit program is undertaken by all State and Territory authorities targeting all sectors of the livestock feed chain (e.g. renderers to stock food manufacturers, stock food resellers and end-users such as livestock producers). Samples may be taken and tested for Restricted Animal Material as part of the inspection/audit process. Where non-compliance is detected, penalties apply.
Industry also undertakes quality assurance programs, which include BSE-related ruminant feed restrictions. An almost universally used National Vendor Declaration, underpinned by penalties for false statements, maintains integrity of the ban when cattle are traded.