RSPCA Australia’s position is that pet food should not be irradiated. Currently there is a ban on the irradiation of imported cat food and we commend the Minister for implementing this ban. This ban followed scientific evidence and the recent ‘Orijen cats’ cases that showed an association between ingestion of irradiated imported cat food and severe neurological impairment, which in some cases was fatal. There is also a requirement that irradiated imported dog food be labelled ‘Must not be fed to cats’.

RSPCA Australia would like to see a ban on the irradiation of all pet food for a number of reasons. Despite label warnings, irradiated dog food may still present a risk to cats that ingest irradiated dog food in a multispecies household. Some of the ‘Orijen cats’ only had access to irradiated dog food, not cat food. In addition, there may be as yet unidentified health effects on dogs following ingestion of irradiated dog food.

Australia has a favourable disease and pest-free status and in order to maintain this status, certain quarantine measures are in place. Pet food products present a high quarantine risk as they may contain animal disease agents or pests that are exotic to Australia. Therefore prior to issuing an import permit for pet food products, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) must be satisfied that the products have undergone sufficient treatment to mitigate any potential risk.

AQIS can apply specific import conditions to manage these risks. In the case of pet food, in most cases the heat treatment applied during manufacture is sufficient to inactivate exotic disease agents, however, in some cases (such as with the Orijen cat food product) the manufacturer’s processing is deemed insufficient and importers are offered further heat treatment or gamma irradiation as a treatment option.

RSPCA Australia asks that should an importer of pet food products fail to meet heat treatment requirements during manufacture or fail to have the product undergo further heat treatment, then an import permit should not be issued. RSPCA Australia will continue to lobby the government until a ban on the irradiation of all pet food products including pet dog food is applied. This is an important step to remove any continuing risks to pet cats living in multi-species households with dogs.

RSPCA Australia recognises that the safety issues associated with the irradiation of imported pet food products are part of an underlying problem - the lack of regulation of the pet food industry. To improve pet food safety standards RSPCA Australia advocates the comprehensive regulation of the Australian Pet Food industry along the entire supply chain. This should include an independent adverse reporting system, regualtions to ensure product safety and accurate labelling of products to reliably inform owners of any preservatives or treatments the products may have been subjected to.

RSPCA Australia welcomes the decision by the Primary Industries Ministerial Council (PIMC) to establish a PIMC working group specifically for Pet Food. This group will assess safety issues regarding both imported and domestic pet food products and RSPCA Australia is represented on this group.