In Tien Giang there is a place considered the "kingdom" of snakes, many species of snakes are listed in the Red Book of Vietnam and the world.

Dong Tam Snake Farm (also known as the Center for Cultivation, Research and Processing of Medicinal Herbs, Logistics Department of Military Region 9) in Binh Duc Commune, Chau Thanh District, Tien Giang Province, is considered a miniature "kingdom" of snakes, because this place is currently raising and preserving thousands of snakes of more than 50 different species, including many extremely poisonous, extremely rare, and endangered snakes. Not only famous for raising and preserving snakes, Dong Tam Snake Farm also has a treatment area for people bitten by snakes and is one of the unique tourist destinations, attracting domestic and foreign tourists in Tien Giang Province.

"Taming" snakes

According to information from Dong Tam Snake Farm, in August 2005, the Snake Museum under the Snake Farm was recognized by the Vietnam Record Book Center as the first Snake Museum to preserve the most snake species in Vietnam (currently preserving more than 40 specimens of rare snake species).

Snakes are raised at Dong Tam Snake Farm.

This place is currently raising and preserving many species such as: King cobra, cobra, viper, banded krait, silver krait... Among them, cobra and king cobra are extremely poisonous species, listed in the Vietnam Red Book. To ensure absolute safety, the "specialists" must carefully study the habits of each species and each snake to come up with a separate care regimen.

To make the extremely venomous snakes at Dong Tam Snake Farm "cute", the staff raising and caring for the snakes here are likened to "nannies", meticulously and carefully caring for them every day to help the snakes adapt and develop best.

Not only that, but according to Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Van Hieu, the staff in charge of snake care at Dong Tam Snake Farm, understanding the characteristics of each type of snake is not enough, but one must clearly understand the condition and "personality" of each snake in order to take good care of it.

For example, for cobras and king cobras, each cage will contain one snake for easy care and monitoring. King cobras only pair up during the breeding season and must be separated immediately after mating. Even after the female gives birth, the baby snakes will be separated, because this species, when hungry, will eat each other, including its own babies...

Newly brought snakes from the wild need a period of care and taming to help them get used to their new environment. Taking care of snakes is not just about feeding and bathing them, but sometimes snake keepers also become “veterinarians” who specialize in injecting medicine if they detect that the snakes have pneumonia, bronchitis, parasites, digestive disorders, etc.

With his experience, Mr. Hieu believes that when dealing with extremely poisonous snakes, one needs knowledge, experience, careful and precise handling. Snakes are dangerous but still useful, especially in scientific research, so Mr. Hieu always encourages his colleagues to take good care of them to increase the herd...

Not only preserving the qualities of venomous snakes intact with about 1,000 snakes raised in a natural or semi-natural environment, Dong Tam Snake Farm has researched physiology and ecology, mastered the process of breeding venomous snakes, laying eggs, hatching baby snakes and raising them. The success of Dong Tam Snake Farm also lies in domesticating the venom, making them less aggressive while still maintaining their physical and chemical properties.

Fight poison with poison

Built on a land full of bombs and bullets during the war, Dong Tam Snake Farm was born after liberation from the desire to find a way to treat soldiers and civilians bitten by snakes in the “six provinces” of the South. In this river region, during the rainy season, snakes sneak into the forest, into people’s living areas, becoming an unpredictable danger.

Scientific research is one of the important tasks at Dong Tam Snake Farm.

At that time, treatment of venomous snake bites relied solely on folk methods, and even if life was saved, it would leave many sequelae. Based on that reality, in 1977, the late Doctor, Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Duoc (teacher Tu Duoc) came up with the idea of establishing an ambulance team to treat people bitten by venomous snakes, and in 1979, the Emergency Department was established and Dong Tam Snake Farm was formed.

For nearly 45 years, military doctors at Dong Tam Snake Farm have used snake venom serum to save the lives of tens of thousands of people bitten by snakes, with an average of about 1,000 cases per year. According to military doctors at the Snake Bite Treatment Department, Dong Tam Snake Farm, there are rare cases where a patient stopped breathing when he arrived at the treatment department because the venom entered the blood and caused his heart to stop beating, but he was still saved. What the doctors here must pay attention to is to distinguish which type of snake bit the patient before coming up with a treatment regimen, because each type of venomous snake has its own antivenom serum.

Many people were bitten by snakes and fell into a coma, but all were saved by the doctors here and returned to their hometowns. The special thing about the Snake Bite Treatment Department, Dong Tam Snake Farm is that, except for the serum, all treatment costs are free.

Besides snakes, Dong Tam Snake Farm also has pythons and many other wild animals, making up a rich collection of "medicines"... From these "medicines", the medicine factory located at Dong Tam Snake Farm has researched and prepared many valuable medicines such as: Python fat cream, Cobratoxan cream from snake venom, snake wine, python oil, green snake powder... Currently, the snake farm has researched and developed 6 products that meet 3-star OCOP quality, including: Turmeric cream - python fat, python fat cream, python fat, honey, 29o snake wine, 29o banana wine.

Dong Tam Snake Farm is a miniature “kingdom” of snakes, with thousands of snakes being raised and their venom extracted to be processed into antivenom serum to treat and save people. Each time, only 1-2 drops of venom are extracted per snake. 10 grams of snake venom can be used to extract enough serum to meet the country’s annual needs.

With the motto “Raising snakes to treat snakebites” or “Treat poison with poison”, over the past 45 years, the snake farm has treated and saved tens of thousands of people. Currently, Dong Tam Snake Farm has opened a second facility on Phu Quoc Island, Kien Giang Province (with an area of 27.4 hectares) with the mission of treating snakebites for soldiers and people in the entire Southwest sea and island region.

Towards unique tourism development

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Hong Phuc, Political Commissar, Party Secretary of the Center for Cultivation, Research and Processing of Medicinal Herbs, Logistics Department of Military Region 9, said that the center was assigned five political tasks: Scientific research to implement ministerial and state-level projects; emergency and snakebite treatment for soldiers and people in the Mekong Delta; cultivation of medicinal plants and animals; production of traditional medicine from medicinal herbs; building ecological models combined with tourism.

In particular, Dong Tam Snake Farm Eco-tourism Site was recognized by the People's Committee of Tien Giang province as a 4-star OCOP standard tourist destination in 2022 and is the only typical tourist destination in the Mekong Delta of Tien Giang province.

In recent years, Dong Tam Snake Farm has also been known to many people nationwide as a wildlife sanctuary, with many species of birds and animals such as: pythons, ostriches, squirrels, salamanders, bears, tigers, gibbons, swans, red pheasants, peacocks, storks, teals...

Visitors to Dong Tam Snake Farm watch a performance of cobra venom extraction.

At the same time, the snake farm also builds large-scale and standard animal breeding areas according to regulations; breeding and commercial animal breeding areas; snake museum; snake performances and snake venom extraction; entertainment and picnic areas, shopping areas for health care products, restaurants; flower islands, miniature landscapes, children's play areas, etc.

Currently, 100% of the paths for tourists are paved and have rest houses; upgrading the campus, flower gardens, and ornamental plants to create a cool space... attracting tourists. In 2023, Dong Tam Snake Farm will welcome nearly 200,000 domestic and international visitors to visit and research.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Hong Phuc, continuing to promote the role of a destination in developing tourism in Tien Giang, in the coming time, Dong Tam Snake Farm will maintain and renovate the entire campus of the unit, creating a green - clean - beautiful landscape for visitors; at the same time, put into operation a number of new products to serve visitors and tourists.

In addition, Dong Tam Snake Farm also continues to expand the market through tourism stimulus programs with domestic and foreign travel agencies and tour companies with the most preferential policies possible. Focus on developing effective and sustainable tourism in the direction of tourism - education - school and tourism - health care.

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