Alerts

Who does this notice affect?

This notice affects:

• Pet food importers
  

• Australian importers of ingredients that are used in pet food manufacture
  

• Australian manufacturers of pet food that use imported ingredients.
  

What is the issue?

Imported pet food and imported pet food ingredients must not be fed to livestock. Doing so puts our country at risk from serious animal diseases. If you want the option to use these products (or their waste or other derivatives) as feed for livestock you must first have written approval for this from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. The best time to seek this approval is when you apply for an import permit for the goods.

Background: The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources conducts biosecurity risk assessments and issues import permits for pet food and ingredients used in pet food manufacture. The intended end use of imported materials is considered as part of the import risk assessment and import conditions vary depending on that proposed end use.

Different species of animal are susceptible to different diseases and biological goods imported for consumption by domestic dogs and cats (pet food) are a lower biosecurity risk than those imported for consumption by livestock (stock feed). Feeding imported pet food or ingredients used in pet food manufacture (including their derivatives and waste products) to Australian livestock may have serious consequences for Australia’s agricultural industries.

If a product that is fed to livestock (e.g. cattle, pigs, chickens, sheep and goats) were contaminated with an exotic animal disease, these susceptible animal species would be directly exposed to the threat. Similarly, contaminated product sent for fertiliser manufacture might indirectly expose pasture grazing animals to the disease. If the same goods were fed to dogs or cats they are much less likely to cause a problem.

The government report into the 2001 foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the UK found that the outbreak was most likely causes by feeding “meat or meat products containing or contaminated with FMD virus …. to pigs” The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) estimates a large FMD outbreak in Australia could cost more than $50 billion over 10 years.

How can I feed imported pet food, pet food ingredients (or biological goods imported for other end uses e.g. human consumption) to livestock animals in Australia?

You need to apply to the department for approval to do this. The best time to apply is generally when you lodge an application for an import permit.

The department will only permit the use of imported goods for stock feed if we can be sure that the biosecurity risks are managed. When we do this assessment we take all relevant information into account, including the source of raw materials, all processing parameters (including those in approved arrangement sites in Australia) and the intended end use.

When we have assessed the risks and are satisfied that they’re managed appropriately we will issue importers with written authorisation. This is usually in the form of an import permit for the goods, approving stock feed use.

Further information

If you have read this alert and have any questions please email the Animal and Biological Import Assessments Branch at imports@agriculture.gov.au or phone 1800 900 090.