VietGAHP is Vietnam’s good animal husbandry practice standard. For pigs it is set out in Decision 4653/QĐ-BNN-CN of 10 November 2015. If your bank, investor or buyer asks for VietGAHP, the farm has to pass an audit by a designated certification body, and then keep running that way until the next one.
I do not issue certificates. What I do is get the farm ready to pass, and check for lenders that a certified farm is still doing what the certificate says.
What the pig standard asks for
The pig procedure has 14 sections and is judged on a 45-point checklist. To pass, a farm must meet all 31 mandatory points and at least 7 of the 14 recommended ones. The main requirements are:
- Site. At least 100 m from schools, hospitals, housing, main roads and surface water, and at least 1 km from slaughterhouses, livestock markets and processing plants.
- Layout and biosecurity. A fence and a controlled entrance, a disinfection point at the gate and at the pens, separate stores for feed and veterinary drugs, and protective clothing for everyone who enters.
- Pig flow. Breeding stock of known origin, quarantine for incoming pigs, all-in/all-out, and pens washed, disinfected and left empty for at least 7 days between batches.
- Feed, water and medicines. Feed from known sources with no banned substances, water tested for E. coli and coliforms, only approved veterinary drugs, and withdrawal times recorded.
- Disease and waste. A written prevention and vaccination plan, an isolation area, daily collection of solid waste and treatment of liquid waste before release.
- Staff. Training, protective equipment, health checks and an emergency procedure.
- Records. Seven record forms covering feed, mixing, pig purchases, vaccination, treatment and sales, kept on the farm for at least 12 months, plus an internal self-inspection at least once a year.
A certificate lasts at most two years, with surveillance audits in between.
Where farms usually fall short
Most farms do not fail on buildings. They fail on what happens every day: a disinfection pit that is dry, a shower nobody uses, pens restocked after two days instead of seven, treatment records that do not match the drug store, or a vaccination plan that exists only on paper. These are management problems, and they are fixable.
How I help farm owners
- Gap audit. About two days on site, going through the farm point by point against the pig checklist, with a written report showing what passes, what does not, and what to fix first.
- Procedures and records. Written procedures for biosecurity, cleaning and downtime, disease prevention and waste, and record sheets the team will actually fill in.
- Staff training. On the barn floor, so the team knows what the auditor will look for and why it matters for the pigs.
- Pre-audit check. A final walk-through before the certification body visits.
Good biosecurity and good records do more than pass an audit. They are the same things that cut mortality and medicine costs. See production consulting for that side of the work.
How I help lenders and investors
A VietGAHP certificate shows the farm passed on the day of the audit. If VietGAHP is a condition of your loan or investment, I check on site that the farm still runs to the standard: certificate and surveillance reports, biosecurity in practice, downtime between batches, medicine and treatment records against sales, and waste handling for the current herd size. See loan compliance audits for banks and lenders.
Why me
I have spent more than 20 years running commercial pig farms in the UK, USA, Ireland and Russia, including a 6,000-sow multi-site operation in Ireland where we cut vaccine and medication spend by 25%, and active sites in ASF-affected regions of Russia. I know what working biosecurity looks like, and what is only there for the auditor.
Legal and permit matters are not covered; certification itself is done by a designated certification body.
Talk to Lee
Tell me about the farm and who is asking for VietGAHP. I will arrange a first call and propose a scope of work before anything is agreed.
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone and WhatsApp: +66 63 012 6353
- Send a message