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Dairy cattle production in Hochiminh City started a long time ago with the import by the French of two Indian dairy cattle breeds, the Red Sindhi and Ongole in 1920-1923 and subsequently was mainly carried out on state farms. Since 1985, however, with the support of the government, dairy production has been expanded to include smallholders in the villages of Vietnam. The support of government is by means of provision of facilities for farmer training, technical facilities, development of dairy breeds, artificial insemination, vaccination, loans, milk collecting centers, dairy processing plants, as well as research and education. Consequently, today small producers, are dispersed throughout the rural and suburban areas, especially in Hochiminh City, and have become the main source of the nation’s milk supply.
Although dairy production is rapidly increasing (Table 1), currently, the dairy sector is still relatively new and farmers have less experience when compared with the other countries in the region. In addition, there are problems in dairy sector such as the hot and humid climate, inadequate land, lack of feed resources, high risk of disease, low technical support and high investment costs.
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Table 1: Milk production and distribution 2000- 2005 and projection to 2015 |
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Items |
Unit |
Year |
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2000 |
2005 |
2010 |
2015 |
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No of dairy cows |
1,000 head |
35.0 |
104.12 |
200.00 |
350.00 |
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Milk production |
1,000 ton |
52.2 |
119.77 |
350 |
550 |
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Population |
1,000,000 |
77.6 |
83.1 |
88.4 |
93.4 |
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Milk distribution |
Kg/capita |
0.67 |
2.38 |
4.0 |
5.9 |
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Source: Animal Husbandry Department, MARD, 2006 |
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The objective of the current survey was therefore to investigate the on-going situation of dairy production and to evaluate the prevalence of sub-clinical mastitis and its causal factors in smallholder dairy farms in the peri-urban areas of Hochiminh City.