The Microbial Industry Support and Promotion Center for Agriculture and Livestock (Director: Professor Kim Dae-hyuk, hereinafter the Microbial Center) and the Department of Agri-Food Convergence at JBNU will establish a Microbial Industry Support Center in Vietnam.

The two organizations recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Vietnam National Institute of Veterinary Research and Vetvaco, a state-owned Vietnamese veterinary pharmaceutical company, to establish a support center that will assist Korean livestock microbial companies' local market entry through joint technology development for the development and industrialization of livestock microbes and official development assistance.

Since 2021, JBNU has been conducting the 'Development of Genomic Technologies for Improving Livestock Robustness in Vietnam,' a science and technology development cooperation project of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korean Intellectual Property Office, supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea. Through this project, a previously unreported Bacillus strain was isolated from Vietnamese food, and its odor-reduction effect in livestock facilities was confirmed.

Since 2018, the Microbial Center and JBNU have been carrying out the 'Eco-probiotics Technology Development and Field Application Project.' By applying this technology, they have helped address one of the four major challenges in livestock farming — manure and odor — thereby contributing to environmental improvement. In particular, when applied to pig farming, the technology enhances swine health and productivity, contributing to business stability and increased income for pig farmers.

The Microbial Center is conducting field demonstration studies of livestock microbes at the municipal level through the Eco-probiotics Utilization Activation Project supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Through efficacy evaluation support projects and GMP facilities for high-quality products based on agricultural and livestock microbes, it supports the industrialization of agricultural and livestock microbes and the development of related companies.

Vietnam's microbial industry currently has a low level of basic and industrialization research, and there are no cases of domestically developed products being industrialized. However, the Vietnamese government has identified the development of antibiotic alternatives as an urgent task to address social issues such as odor reduction from livestock and the planned ban on antibiotic use in livestock production by 2030. It has set microbial R&D that improves the environment and productivity as a major policy objective.

Kim Dae-hyuk, Director of the Microbial Center (Professor at JBNU), said, 'Since the Microbial Center opened in 2017, it is meaningful that we have signed an MOU to establish a center and pursue joint research with national research institutes and state-owned companies in developing countries to lead the local microbial industry.' He added, 'We will do our best to successfully complete the establishment of a center that supports the development of Vietnam's local livestock microbial industry and the local market entry of domestic livestock microbial companies through future international development cooperation projects.'

Nguyen Tuan Hung, CEO of Vetvaco, said, 'Although microbes have primarily been used to improve productivity in Vietnam's livestock industry, most microbial products are imported from China or Europe and sold domestically. Microbial R&D is needed to produce and sell domestically developed microbe-based products to improve livestock facility environments and enhance robustness for competitiveness.'

He added, 'In particular, the eco-probiotics technology developed in Korea is suitable for small-scale Vietnamese livestock farms. Through the signing of this MOU, if institutions like the Microbial Center are established in Vietnam and eco-probiotics technology is applied, we expect not only the development of Vietnam's livestock industry but also an increase in farmers' incomes.'