Tay Ninh livestock industry ‘born anew’ with biosecurity

Household farming accounts for a high proportion of Tay Ninh's livestock industry at approximately 20%. Recent information from Tay Ninh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development shows that small-scale livestock farming in this province holds certain risks, not ensuring disease safety while environmental pollution is still present. Dangerous pathogens such as avian influenza, African swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease still exist in the environment, so the chance of disease outbreaks is high.

Household livestock farming also poses many environmental challenges. It is common to see people not knowing how to treat waste, letting water and solid waste be discharged directly into the environment, causing serious impacts on the surrounding living environment. Therefore, the livestock industry is required to truly transform in both quantity and quality. Shifting to biosafe livestock farming as soon as possible is mandatory.

According to Tran Van Chien, Vice Chairman of Tay Ninh People's Committee, the local agricultural sector needs to reorganize production stages in order to develop in the right direction and create new opportunities for the industry to access biosafe livestock farming and build disease-free areas. This will become the foundation for the province to export livestock products to more markets.

“Tay Ninh will focus on promoting the construction of disease-free livestock farming areas, encouraging businesses to invest in building slaughterhouses with advanced technology, diversifying consumption markets, and forming many high-tech livestock farming and slaughtering chains,” said Vice Chairman Chien.

Considering Tay Ninh province’s current situation, Tan Chau district has been recognized as a disease-free area. According to Nguyen Thi Hong Loan, Head of the provincial Sub-Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health, it is expected that Tay Ninh will have two more district-level disease-free areas in Tan Bien and Go Dau for avian influenza and Newcastle disease in chickens by December 2024. “This is the basis for Tay Ninh to become an ideal destination for businesses in the livestock industry in general and agriculture in particular to look for new investment opportunities,” she said.

Duong Minh Chau district has also achieved disease safety according to the regulations of the World Organization for Animal Health for avian influenza and Newcastle disease. Ben Cau district has achieved disease safety according to Vietnam's regulations for foot-and-mouth disease in cattle.

Promoting the development of disease-free livestock farming areas and chains not only serves the prevention and control of livestock diseases but also ensures the supply of livestock products for the domestic market while pushing exports. Tay Ninh identifies the development of animal disease-free zones as extremely crucial in its implementation of livestock development strategy.

Tay Ninh Sub-Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health regularly conducts periodic assessments in accordance with regulations and appraises and re-issues disease-free certificates to livestock farms upon request from livestock farmers. Up until this point, the province has 71 livestock farms that have been granted disease-free certificates, including 49 chicken farms, 21 pig farms and 1 cattle farm.

The determination of Tay Ninh’s livestock industry to commit to a strong transformation is proven through one of its recent successes. Tay Ninh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has advised the provincial People's Committee to approve the investment policies of famous livestock enterprises and have them stationed in the area. Among them are De Heus Co., Ltd., Vinamilk, Hung Nhon Group, BaF Livestock Company, QL Vietnam Agroresources Co., Ltd, and many more.

As for small-scale livestock farming, the veterinary system at all levels has also strengthened disease control, monitoring and proactively taking actions to isolate and suppress epidemics when there is a risk. The vaccination rate for livestock in Tay Ninh in recent years has always been maintained at a minimum of 80%. In particular, the grassroots veterinary force will conduct free vaccinations for small-scale livestock farming households, and farm-scale households will proactively vaccinate their livestock.

Tay Ninh has 580 livestock farms to date, including 128 pig farms, 49 buffalo farms and 403 cow farms, in addition to 111 poultry farms. Tan Chau and Tan Bien districts have the largest number of concentrated farms.