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The objective of this field questionnaire survey was to provide information about the characteristics of rural smallholder farming communities, which have been targeted by the Vietnamese government's dairy development policy. The results from this study suggest that the adoption of dairy farming is partly determined by pre-existing wealth of the farming households. It is, therefore, more likely that while the government's dairy development policy has achieved its first objective of an increase in the dairy cattle population, it has been less successful at achieving the second objective of reducing the level of poverty within rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study was to investigate constraints to dairy cattle health and production in rural smallholder communities in northern Vietnam, one of the target areas of the Vietnam government's dairy development programme. A total of 99 dairy farms (11 per commune) were recruited from 9 of 32 communes in Ba Vi District, using random two-stage cluster sampling. After the initial questionnaire interviews were conducted, farms were visited at three monthly intervals over a period of 1 year. Information on several health and production parameters relating to the study cattle was collected. Using multiple indicator modelling, it was found that Fasciola infestation, farmers who had been involved in dairying for longer (not indicative of better management skills), larger herd size, and cattle being kept in a shed were linked to reduced reproductive performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A clinical picture of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) induced by highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) has been reported. We reviewed 37 sets of clinical data for pediatric patients with ARDS at the National Hospital of Pediatrics (Hanoi, Vietnam); 12 patients with H5N1-positive and 25 with H5N1-negative ARDS were enrolled. The H5N1-negative patients had a clinical picture and mortality rate similar to that for the pediatric ARDS patients. However, the H5N1-positive patients had ARDS with normal ventilation capacity at the time of hospital admission, then rapidly proceeded to severe respiratory failure. The survival probability and days until final outcome in groups of H5N1-positive (n=12) vs. H5N1-negative (n=25) patients were 17% versus 52% and 12.3+/-5.7 days (median, 11 days) versus 21.5+/-13.8 days (median, 22 days), respectively. Our observations clarified the clinical picture of H5N1-induced fulminant ARDS and also confirmed that relatively older age (approximately 6 years of age), high fever at onset, and leukopenia and/or thrombocytopenia at the time of hospital admission are risk parameters for H5N1-induced fulminant ARDS.

Summary Since 2004, significant associations between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) susceptibility in cattle and frequencies of insertion/deletion (ins/del; indel) polymorphisms within the bovine prion protein gene (PRNP) have been reported. In this study, we investigated the frequencies of indel polymorphisms within two variable sites, a 23-bp indel polymorphism in the promoter region (23indel) and a 12-bp indel polymorphism in intron 1 region (12indel), in the PRNP in 206 Vietnamese dairy cattle and seven Japanese BSE-affected cattle. In Vietnamese dairy cattle, the frequency distributions of del allele and del/del genotypic polymorphisms in the 23indel site, which are thought to be associated with BSE susceptibility, were significantly higher, whereas the frequencies of del allelic and del/del genotypic polymorphisms in the 12indel site, which have been reported to confer BSE susceptibility, were significantly lower. We have provided evidence that Vietnamese dairy cattle have a unique genetic background in the PRNP gene in comparison with cattle or sires previously reported in other countries.

Necropsied lung tissues of three fatal cases with avian influenza A virus (H5N1) infection in Vietnam were analyzed to detect H5N1 virus-infected cells. Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded lung tissue sections showed typical histological features of diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) in all cases. Immunohistochemistry for the influenza A virus nucleoprotein antigen revealed positive signals of bronchiolar and alveolar epithelial cells in only one patient, who exhibited DAD with an exudative phase and died on the 6th day after onset. However, no signal was detected in the other two cases of DAD with a proliferative phase. These patients died on day 16 and day 17 after onset, respectively. H5N1 virus antigens were detected predominantly in epithelial cells in terminal bronchioles and in alveoli, i.e., type I and type II alveolar pneumocytes, and in alveolar macrophages. The pathogenesis of exudative DAD caused by H5N1 infection is discussed.

The objective of this field study was to describe the temporal pattern of dairy cattle health and production and associated risk factors in rural small-holder communities in northern Vietnam, one of the target areas of the government's dairy development programme. A total of 99 dairy farms (11 per commune) were recruited from 9 of 32 communes in Ba Vi District, Ha Tay Province, using random two-stage cluster sampling. All dairy cattle present on the selected farms were included. After the initial questionnaire survey was conducted, farms were visited to collect follow-up information at 3-monthly intervals over a period of one year. The results suggest that offtake as well as mortality are important productivity indices because farmers sell or slaughter dairy cattle that are in poor health at low prices during summer months. Changes in relation to the farming operation suggest that for the farmers adopting dairy production it has become one of the main agricultural activities.