Professor Lee Hak-gyo's research team (Department of Animal Biotechnology) recently transferred technology to the state-owned veterinary pharmaceutical company Vetvaco to industrialize a microbial formulation using a novel Bacillus coagulans isolated from Vietnamese food.

Since 2021, the team has been carrying out the 'Project for Development of Genomic Technologies to Enhance Livestock Robustness in Vietnam,' supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea under the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korean Intellectual Property Office's Intellectual Property Utilization Science and Technology Support Project (ODA). They isolated the Bacillus coagulans from a Vietnamese food called pickled mango.

The research team administered the newly developed Bacillus coagulans together with domestically sourced lactic acid bacteria and yeast as a composite microbial formulation for livestock to local Vietnamese pigs. When the animals were challenged with viruses causing wasting diseases, the team confirmed superior growth performance and enhanced disease resistance in the pigs.

Livestock accounts for a large share of Vietnam's agricultural output, and annual pork consumption is also high at approximately 37 million tons. Accordingly, about 28 million pigs are being raised.

Vietnam's swine industry is vulnerable to catastrophic diseases, and productivity is relatively low due to the burden of expensive prophylactics and therapeutics. Therefore, practical and economical solutions tailored to local conditions are needed.

This Research Outcome isolated and identified a novel livestock microbial usable in developing countries and promoted its industrialization. It is expected to improve animal health in developing countries and contribute to increased income and management stability for pig farmers.

Nguyen Tuan Hung, CEO of Vetvaco, said, 'This Technology Transfer will be an opportunity to revive Vietnam's livestock industry, which has suffered enormous losses from consumptive livestock diseases and disaster-level outbreaks. I am confident that the excellent microbial formulation developed using Korean technology and know-how will secure strong competitiveness in the Vietnamese domestic market.'

Principal Investigator (PI), Professor Lee Hak-gyo, said, 'This is a valuable example of delivering Korea's world-class microbial expertise to developing countries through a science and technology development cooperation (ODA) joint project (Intellectual Property Utilization Science and Technology Support Project) and advancing it to the industrialization stage locally. It can become a foothold to support domestic livestock microbial companies' entry into the Vietnamese market.'