Vietnam cracks down on banned pig feed ingredient use

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  Andrea Gantz

  Vietnam officials will close down establishments once a third offense of using banned pig feed ingredients.

  From WATTAgNet:
  The Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is cracking down on pig and pig feed producers that are using substances that are banned for use in feed.
  Nguyen Xuan Duong, vice head of the ministry's Department for Animal Husbandry, during a press conference held April 6, said that businesses in violation of using banned substances in pig feed would be issued warnings for the first two offenses. If a third offense were to occur, the establishment in violation would be forced to close. The MARD official added that closed establishments would also have their names released to the media.
  While the agriculture ministry is taking feed quality concerns seriously, it does admit that there will be challenges for MARD officials to thoroughly do inspections at all facilities because of the imbalance between the number of inspectors and pig production and feed production facilities. As a result, inspections in 2015 will focus on pig producers, feed mixers and traders of pig feed and veterinary medicine. Pig farms that mix their own feed will also be given higher priority for inspections, according to Duong.
  MARD states that during times when pig prices are high, such as now, the use of substandard pig feed appears to increase.