Farmer knowledge surveys were conducted in 2008 and 2010 in Cambodia to evaluate the impact of a research project studying interventions that can improve cattle production and health, including biosecurity and practices relating to risks of transmission of transboundary diseases. The project hypothesis is that by increasing the value of smallholder-owned large ruminants through nutritional interventions and improved marketing, knowledge-based interventions including risk management for infectious diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) can be implemented into a more sustainable pathway for rural development. Between 2008 and 2010, significant improvements in farmer knowledge and attitudes were recorded in three villages in three provinces of southern Cambodia. This was achieved through participatory 'applied field research', 'on the job' training plus 'formal' training programmes. No cases of FMD were recorded during the study period in the 'high-intervention' (HI) villages despite the common occurrence of the disease in a nearby 'low-intervention' and many other villages in the three provinces. Whilst it is likely that protection of these villages from FMD infection was from increasing the herd immunity by vaccination, it could also have been partly because of a decrease in risk behaviours by farmers as a result of their increasing knowledge of biosecurity. The research indicates that smallholder farmers are motivated by nutritional interventions that improve the value of their cattle 'bank' and offer better marketing opportunities. This provides a more receptive environment for introduction of disease risk management for infectious and other production limiting diseases, best implemented for smallholder farmers in Cambodia by intensive training programmes. In lieu of a widespread public awareness programme to deliver mass education of smallholder farmers in disease prevention and biosecurity, livestock development projects in South-East Asia should be encouraged to include training in disease risk management as an important intervention if the current momentum for trade in large ruminant livestock and large ruminant meat is to continue to progress and contribute to addressing global food security concerns.

Applied participatory research on large-ruminant health and production was conducted in six villages in northern Lao PDR. Three villages were classified as ‘high intervention’ (HI) and the remaining three as ‘low intervention’ (LI) sites, with a suite of health and productivity interventions implemented in the HI sites enabling comparison of outcomes with the LI sites, where only a vaccination program was introduced. A 3-year longitudinal study to establish baseline production variables, including liveweight, average daily weight gain (ADG) and reproductive performance, was conducted. The study involved 1500 head of cattle and buffalo that were ear-tagged and weighed every 3–4 months between 2008 and 2011, producing 10 data-collection points. Significant differences in ADG of the cattle between the provinces (P < 0.001), but not between HI and LI villages (P = 0.39), was observed. Low calving rates (51–75% and 41–52%) and inter-calving intervals (13.6–15.7 and 18.6–20.6 months) for cattle and buffalo, respectively, were observed. An on-farm large ruminant-fattening trial (n = 44) was conducted over a 4-month period to examine differences in productivity between cut-and-carry stall fattening (n = 26) and free-grazing (n = 18) systems. Cattle and buffalo in fattening stalls (320 and 217 g/day) had significantly greater ADG than those free-grazing (40 and 85 g/day) (P < 0.001 and P = 0.001). The increase in sale value for fattened cattle and buffalo was US$78 and US$123, respectively. The longitudinal study indicated that if risks of important diseases such as foot and mouth disease and haemorrhagic septicaemia are controlled by vaccination and biosecurity, improved productivity outcomes in northern Lao PDR can be achieved by establishing forage plantations to better manage variations in seasonal availability of feed and enabling fattening. We conclude that improved large-ruminant productivity, by improving health and nutrition practices, offers opportunities for smallholder farmers to increase livestock income, alleviate rural poverty and improve regional food security in South-east Asia.

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is the most important global transboundary livestock disease and is endemic in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) with outbreaks occurring regularly. Lao PDR shares borders with five countries and as a major thoroughfare for transboundary livestock movement, is vulnerable to the social and economic impacts of FMD. The FMD outbreak occurred in January 2009 in the Pek District, located in the north-eastern Lao PDR province of Xieng Khuang and involved all 111 villages in that district. In March 2009, we conducted a case study on the impacts of FMD in four villages in Pek District. In two villages cattle and buffalo were vaccinated for FMD recently and prior to the outbreak as part of an ongoing research project. In one of these villages, all cattle and buffalo were vaccinated and just over half the large ruminant population was vaccinated in the other village. The other two villages involved in the case study were located nearby but not part of the ongoing research project and no animals had been vaccinated. Data were collected from the four villages by interviewing the village animal health worker in each village using a standard questionnaire. Morbidity rates for the fully vaccinated village were 1% and 7.9% for the partially vaccinated village and were much lower compared with the two adjacent, unvaccinated villages where morbidity rates were 61% and 74.3% respectively. Estimates of the financial losses incurred were USD 1.7-1.9 per cow or buffalo for the fully vaccinated village, USD 6.9-8.1 for the partly vaccinated village and 52.4-70.8 USD in the unvaccinated villages, providing evidence that a large opportunity cost is incurred by failing to vaccinate in areas where the risk of FMD incursions is high.

Summary Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is an endemic transboundary disease in the Mekong region, and FMD records of reports to animal health authorities in Lao PDR between 2009 and 2011 were reviewed. FMD outbreaks occurred in 2 of 3 years in eight districts in three of the eight northern Lao PDR provinces, locations suggested as FMD ‘hotspots’. The relatively higher risk of recurrence of FMD in these districts was likely due to the presence of a dense large ruminant population, extensive animal trading including transboundary movements and ineffective animal movement controls. As an understanding of the epidemiology of FMD in these ‘hotspots’ may offer insights into improved FMD control in the region, a study of an outbreak of FMD occurring in early 2010 following failure to vaccinate was conducted in the endemic ‘hotspot’ area of Paek district in Xiengkhoung province where in early 2009, a major outbreak of FMD in the district had been prevented in two villages by vaccination. The 2010 outbreak included collection of tissue samples 1 week after the onset of FMD that confirmed infection with FMD virus serotype O (Myanmar topotype) in a population of 239 large ruminants, comprising 167 cattle and 72 buffalo. A survey by interview of 30 farmers conducted in July 2010 documented high morbidity in cattle and buffalo (>90%) and identified disease risk factors, including increased trading of animals at the end of the rice harvest, plus several failures of biosecurity. In late 2010 and early 2011, a total of 40 and 72 serum samples were collected from large ruminants prior to and post‐FMD vaccination respectively and tested by LPB‐ELISA. Antibodies were present in the pre‐vaccination samples attributable to previous exposure to FMD virus and significantly rising post‐vaccination titres indicated likely temporary protection against future FMDV infection. It was concluded that to provide sufficient control of FMD in this ‘hotspot’, regular vaccination, particularly prior to the peak risk period in December‐February, plus improved farmer knowledge of disease transmission risk and biosecurity, is required. Although low rural education standards and language barriers because of multiple ethnic groups pose a challenge for the successful delivery of extension programmes in northern Lao PDR, training to improve disease recognition and reporting plus village‐level biosecurity practices is considered important in FMD ‘hotspots’ if sustainable regional initiatives directed at FMD control are to be achieved.

Harmonisation of disease management practices across global space and the devolution of responsibility to a broader range of actors are two increasingly important approaches for ordering biosecurity governance. While these forms of ordering have been examined individually, the social science biosecurity literature provides limited insights into how they interact and interfere with one another, and the consequences for biosecurity implementation. This paper draws upon an institutional logics approach to examine the different and competing logics through which government agencies, industry bodies and farming enterprises engage in biosecurity. It focuses specifically on the ways in which these logics pose challenges for harmonisation of biosecurity as well as create alternative spaces of negotiation for making life safe. Through the analysis of policy documents and semi-structured interviews with government and industry stakeholders, as well as with beef producers, we identify three institutional logics being the neoliberal, productivist and agrarian logics. We argue that the existence of multiple logics poses significant challenges for efforts to achieve improved harmonisation of biosecurity in an environment of devolved responsibility to industry, farming bodies and producers. In this context, greater emphasis by stakeholders on the productivist logic holds the most potential for improving biosecurity implementation in that it works with existing agricultural circulations and flows, and with producers' herd health practices.

International efforts to prevent the spread of biological threats to agro-food production are increasingly being devolved from national governments to farming industries and farmers. Previous research has highlighted the farm-level and institutional challenges in engaging farmers in biosecurity. However, little is known sociologically about what farmers already know and do to manage disease risk, and specifically how they practice biosecurity. This article addresses this issue through the application of theoretical work on the choreography of care. Drawing from a qualitative study of biosecurity in the Australian beef industry, we argue that farmers' localised practices of caring for their herd health and farm are crucial in making biosecurity workable. These practices take two key forms: skilled craftwork, through which farmers construct and hold together different objects and elements of care; and fluid engineering, which involves efforts to construct barriers for separating on-farm practices of care from perceived off-farm disease risks. In engaging in these care practices, farmers make an important contribution to national livestock biosecurity principles and practices. We argue that greater recognition of localised practices of biosecure care may provide the basis for engaging farmers more effectively in a devolved form of biosecurity governance.

The purpose of this study was to determine baseline knowledge and identify knowledge gaps of farmers on biosecurity, risk of transmission of transboundary diseases and large ruminant health and production in three provinces of northern Laos, Hua Phan (HP), Luang Prabang (LPB) and Xieng Khoung (XK). The survey was conducted in six villages that are project sites for an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) project, with two villages located in each of the three provinces. A census survey was conducted by interview with all 238 farmers participating in the ACIAR project, using a structured questionnaire. The interviews were conducted in Lao language and took 1-2 h per farmer. The answers were recorded in Lao and the survey data were translated into English and transcribed into Microsoft Excel, and a linear mixed model in the Genstat statistical analysis package was used to compare quantitative traits between the target provinces. The results showed that the prediction mean of farmer knowledge scores on parasitic disorders, infectious disease, reproduction and nutrition management were significantly different between the target provinces. The prediction mean of farmer knowledge scores on infectious disease questions ranged between 5.11 in HP to 8.54 in XK of 24 marks (P < 0.001). The prediction mean of total knowledge scores was 13.48 in LPB and 19.29 in XK of 42 marks (P < 0.001). The results indicate both the need for and scope required to attain improvements in farmer knowledge of large ruminant health and production. It was concluded that a participatory research and extension programme to address village-level biosecurity and reduce disease risks, plus enhance large ruminant production capabilities of smallholder producers, is a valid and potentially important strategy to address transboundary disease risk and rural poverty in northern Laos.

Future food security has become a major global concern and is particularly important in the Greater Mekong Subregion where several countries have seen rapid urban economic development and increasing demand for red meat. In Cambodia, the majority of livestock producers are subsistence or semi-subsistence rural smallholder farmers using cattle as a source of protein, fertiliser, draught power, and asset storage. Potential income from smallholder cattle is limited by a range of factors that compromise productivity, including endemic diseases, poor nutrition, and lack of knowledge of husbandry techniques and marketing practices. To address the developing opportunities to improve rural incomes from cattle production in Cambodia, a 4-year longitudinal study was conducted to examine ‘best practice’ interventions that could improve productivity and profitability of cattle within smallholder farming systems. The study involved six villages from three provinces, with two villages in each of the provinces of Takeo, Kandal and Kampong Cham paired and designated as either high intervention (HI) or low intervention (LI). A best practice intervention program was introduced to the HI villages to develop the husbandry skills of farmers, including implementation of forage technology, disease prevention through vaccination for foot-and-mouth disease and haemorrhagic septicaemia, deworming, and education in nutrition, biosecurity, disease control, and marketing. Between April 2008 and February 2012, eight repeat-measures capturing data on animal health and production, including cattle weights used to evaluate the impact of interventions on average daily gains, were completed. Cattle in HI villages had significantly (P < 0.01) higher mean liveweight during the last three sampling periods, and average daily gains were 2.4 times higher than in cattle of the LI villages. This study provides evidence that best practice interventions resulted in improved cattle productivity, farmer knowledge and positive impacts on household income over time, offering a pathway that can address food security concerns and more rapidly alleviate rural poverty in the GMS.