Changes in farmer animal health and biosecurity knowledge, attitudes and practices: Insights from Cambodia and Laos.

Livestock agriculture in Cambodia and Laos is severely affected by endemic and exotic transboundary animal diseases, impacting household livelihoods and food and nutritional security. Collaborative animal health and biosecurity projects were conducted in each country between 2015 and 2019 aimed at increasing smallholder livestock production through mainly knowledge-based interventions in large ruminant disease prevention, nutrition, reproduction and marketing access. This study's objectives were to identify baseline animal health and biosecurity knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of farmers, and temporal changes in key attitudes and practices associated with improved knowledge.

Serological Evidence of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Infection in Goats in Lao PDR.

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) causes significant economic loss in Lao PDR (Laos) and perpetuates the cycle of smallholder poverty mainly through large ruminant productivity losses, increased costs of production and potential limitations to market access for trade in livestock and their products. Goats are emerging as an important livestock species in Laos, and there is an increasing trend in the number of households with goats, often farmed alongside cattle and buffalo. Although an FMD susceptible species, very little is known about the role of goats in the epidemiology of the disease in Laos.

Risk factors for Neospora caninum, bovine viral diarrhoea virus, and Leptospira interrogans serovar Hardjo infection in smallholder cattle and buffalo in Lao PDR.

Smallholder large ruminant production in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) is characterised by low reproductive efficiency. To determine if common abortifacient bovid infectious diseases are involved, a serological investigation was conducted. Sera was collected from stored and fresh cattle (n = 390) and buffalo (n = 130) samples from 2016-18 from, and then examined for associations in a retrospective risk factor study of 71 herds.

Financial impact of an outbreak of clinically diagnosed blackleg - a case study from Lao PDR.

Blackleg (BL) is an acute to peracute highly fatal infectious disease of mainly large ruminants characterised by lesions of myonecrosis caused by Clostridium chauvoei, usually presenting as a sudden onset of sporadic mortalities. In Southeast Asia, 'BL' is considered a cause of occasional outbreaks of a subacute febrile illness, although there are few published reports available. Investigation of a major outbreak of clinically diagnosed BL occurring in large ruminants (cattle and buffalo) in three neighbouring villages in central Laos in mid-2017, was conducted to determine the financial impacts of BL on smallholder livelihoods.