Rutjawate Taharnklaew
Research and Development Center – Betagro Group, Thailand
Abstract:
The poultry and pig production in Thailand has been revolutionized from backyard farms since more than 50 years ago to the modern commercial farms at present time that make Thailand being one of the chicken meat exporters to feed consumer worldwide. In 2016 Thailand exported 4% and 30% of the total value of USD 20,760 and 6,558 million for frozen chicken and processed chicken respectively to the world market. On the contrary for pork meat, due to the foot and mouth disease problem, Thailand cannot export raw pork meat and processed meat to Europe and North America. However, Japan is the biggest market for processed/cooked pork meat products from Thailand currently. Hong Kong is also another market for raw pork meat from Thailand.
The broiler population in Thailand has increased dramatically from 1,243 to 1,622 million birds per year in 2012 and 2016 respectively with the annual growth rate of 4.5% and since 2017 to 2020 the population has been estimated at 1,664 and 1,851 million birds per year respectively with the annual growth rate of 2.7%. In pig, the total fattening one was 17.7 million heads in 2017 and has been forecasted to increase by 1.66% annually until 2020. The biggest challenge of broiler and pig production in Thailand that make industries suffer from economic losses is the existing of many diseases.
It has been educated and experienced for many decades by the poultry and pig producers to fight and attempting to control the outbreak of diseases by employing variety of preventive measures from basic practices to advanced technology. One of the most important ways of transmitting diseases is the transportation of animals. Therefore, the biosecurity and quarantine of new animals before entering the farm is quite emphasized not to be ignored. Farm visit is quite restricted and needs processes to disinfect the people who may be required to enter the farm. Cleaning and disinfect of housing, litter, animal truck and especially surrounding areas are required and set it as a rules of thumb.
Vaccination is a very important preventive measure in Thailand for poultry and pig producers to follow with a very strict and using of proper program. Most of the poultry and pig viral diseases, endemic and/or epidemic, that found as problems in Thailand can be controlled successfully using commercial available vaccines from well-known manufacturers. However the vaccine for individual farm using specific isolations of virus is an alternative for some pig farms to use under supervision of veterinarian. This is not surprisingly a measure in order to combat and control some of pig diseases in Thailand since many decades ago. Transmissible gastroenteritis or TGE in neonatal piglet is an example of the using of grounded TGE virus-infected intestine of dead piglets and feces to feed the gestation sow 2-4 weeks before farrowing. This strategy is to control the loss of piglet from TGE by maximizing passive immunity with planned infection of the sow herd. In 2007 when Porcine epidemic diarrhea or PED outbreak has appeared the first in Nakhonpathom province before spreading throughout Thailand, pig producers have then used the same strategy as TGE to control PED with successful protection. At present although the commercial vaccines are available in Thailand, the efficacy is quite limited. So the research and development of PED vaccine in Thailand should be pursued using advanced technology to get the highest efficacious vaccine. This will replace the feedback strategy which has no dosing indication that might give an unwanted consequences to the specific farms in a longer term.