Viet Nam's livestock breakthrough: 30 years of selective breeding

Winning 'Vietnamese Nobel Prize' with three native chicken breeds

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According to Huynh Ngoc Diep, Head of the Sub-Department of Animal Health and Production of Gia Lai, in the livestock sector, the province plans to strongly develop high-quality cattle herds in the western localities of the province and poultry across the entire province in the coming period. The pig herd will remain stable, with development focused only on improving farming technology toward reducing small household farming, promoting high-tech livestock production and circular farming.

In Gia Lai, poultry production is strongly developed in the eastern part of the province (the former Binh Dinh area) due to its plain terrain, while the western part of the province has strong cattle development thanks to the large land area of the Central Highlands. Currently, Gia Lai has a total poultry population of 18.4 million birds, including about 17 million chickens (10 million in eastern Gia Lai and 7 million in western Gia Lai).

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In the coming period, Gia Lai plans to accelerate the development of chicken production, building on the advantage that the province is home to two well-known companies specializing in high-quality breeding chickens, including Minh Du Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd. in Tuy Phuoc commune.

In recognition of his contributions after more than 30 years of research and breeding to develop three high-quality native chicken breeds—MD1.BĐ, MD2.BĐ, and MD3.BĐ - in 2021, Mr. Du was awarded the Vietnam Science and Technology Innovation Award 2020. In 2022, he was honored by the State-level Council with the Ho Chi Minh Prize and the State Prize for Science and Technology (6th phase, 2022).

“The Ho Chi Minh Prize is similar to the ‘Vietnamese Nobel Prize’; it is extremely prestigious. Mr. Du truly deserves this award because to develop the three chicken breeds MD1.BĐ, MD2.BĐ, and MD3.BĐ, he spent more than 30 years devoting all his effort to researching and breeding native chicken lines that combine fast growth, high egg production, and strong disease resistance, bringing high efficiency to livestock production,” said Dr. Phan Trong Ho, former Director of the Binh Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (former), currently Chairman of the Gia Lai Livestock and Veterinary Association.

During his tenure as Director of the Binh Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and as a livestock expert, Dr. Phan Trong Ho closely followed the development of Minh Du Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd., especially the breeding process that produced the MD1.BĐ, MD2.BĐ, and MD3.BĐ native chicken breeds. These breeds were certified as technical and technological advances by the Department of Livestock Production (now the Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health) in 2017; recognized as Vietnam’s Golden Livestock Products from 2016 to 2018; certified as a high-tech science and technology enterprise in 2018; and awarded a 5-star OCOP certification for breeding chicken products in 2019 by Binh Dinh province (former).

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At first, Mr. Du’s chicken breeding work was largely based on traditional experience passed down from earlier generations, such as selecting hens and roosters with large body size, good combs, and attractive appearance. However, this traditional method revealed many shortcomings, resulting in breeding chickens with low disease resistance, high mortality rates, and poor growth performance.

At that time, many colored-feather chicken breeds were being imported into Vietnam, while native chicken breeds had not yet truly won over farmers. It was then that Le Van Du came up with the idea of relying on the outstanding traits and wide adaptability of indigenous chicken breeds to develop a distinctive line that could compete with imported breeds. He began dedicating himself to breeding chicken lines that combined many advantages, building the Minh Du brand.

A persistent journey

Mr. Du began his breeding work by traveling across the country to collect indigenous chicken breeds with strong traits. In the former Binh Dinh province, he selected the Ri chicken breed, a small-sized breed but highly adaptable to environmental conditions, with strong disease resistance and especially flavorful meat. Mr. Du crossbred Ri chickens with fighting chickens and Mia chickens—two breeds with large body size and good meat quality—to create hybrid lines with high productivity and quality.

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At that time, whenever he heard that a province had a distinctive native chicken breed, Mr. Du would immediately travel there, roaming through rural areas to search for and collect indigenous chicken breeds. Each local breed had its own strengths, so he carefully studied each one to identify its advantages, then crossbred them to create hybrid combinations that combined the best traits of multiple breeds. The chickens he collected had to be raised separately by breed, monitored and evaluated individually, and then the best genetic sources were combined to create the most optimal hybrid lines for multiplication.

“During that time, Mr. Du spent almost the entire day in the chicken houses observing each individual bird, tracking the egg-laying performance of each collected breed, culling poor layers, and eventually selecting 5,000 hens with outstanding laying capacity. From these 5,000 hens, Mr. Du continued selecting hens that did not brood by dividing the barns into 10 pens, each with 500 hens.

Every day, he stood outside the barns to monitor which hens brooded eggs and moved them to the culling pens, keeping only the non-brooding hens because non-brooding hens have higher laying productivity. Out of 5,000 hens, Mr. Du selected only five non-brooding hens to keep as breeding stock, while the rest were sold for meat,” recalled Dr. Phan Trong Ho.

After more than 30 years and hundreds of generations of selection, Mr. Du finally developed a line of non-brooding hens. Currently, Minh Du Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd. owns a total breeding flock of 680,000 chickens, including 5,000 great-grandparent stock, 50,000 grandparent stock, and 625,000 parent stock. From an initial productivity of 90 eggs per hen, Mr. Du’s hens now reach up to 180 eggs per hen per year. With this level of productivity, his hens’ egg production is comparable to imported breeds such as Luong Phuong and Tam Hoang chickens.

According to Huynh Ngoc Diep, Head of the Sub-Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health of Gia Lai, in the past, breeding new livestock varieties was the work of state research agencies. It often took decades to create a new breed with uniform genetics, consistent growth and development, high weight gain, and feed conversion efficiency that would ensure profits for farmers. To breed grandparent chicken lines that possess all these advantages, Mr. Du invested not only tremendous effort but also significant financial resources.

“Minh Du Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd. is currently applying Industry 4.0 technologies in production. The feeding and watering systems, barn environment control, lighting systems, and disinfection spraying systems are all equipped with high-tech production lines. The hatchery of Minh Du Company is considered the most modern in Asia and one of the eight most modern hatcheries in the world, applying Industry 4.0 technology and automation in production,” said Huynh Ngoc Diep, Head of the Sub-Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health of Gia Lai.

From March 27 to 28, the MAE will organize the first National Conference on Livestock and Veterinary Science and Technology, with the participation of leaders from National Assembly agencies, the Government Office, relevant ministries and sectors; management agencies, associations, enterprises, and scientists in the livestock and veterinary sectors from across the country. The conference will take place at the National Convention Center on Pham Hung Street, Tu Liem Ward, Hanoi.

VAN News will provide live coverage of this important event.