Understanding veterinary drug shop workers' knowledge and practices to identify drivers of antibiotic use in Vietnamese livestock farms.

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a One Health issue and a major threat to animal and human health. Antibiotic use (ABU) drives AMR development, and several hotspots for ABU, and AMR, in livestock have been identified in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. There are often multiple drivers of ABU at farms, and to identify all of them there is a need to look beyond farm level. OBJECTIVES: The overall aim of this study was to identify routines and/or competencies, related to antibiotic sales, among veterinary drug shop workers that may be improved in order to decrease the medically non-rational use of antibiotics in livestock production. METHODS: A questionnaire-based survey was conducted at 50 veterinary drug shops in northern Vietnam. RESULTS: Results showed high education and knowledge levels. According to the respondents, antibiotic treatment advice was almost always provided to the farmers, and the recommended treatment was most commonly based on recommendations for the specific disease. However, farmers had almost never had their animals properly diagnosed. Antibiotics were the most sold drug category, penicillins being the most common. Several broad-spectrum antibiotics were also quite frequently sold. Further, >50% of respondents recommended antibiotics for disease prevention. CONCLUSIONS: Even though education and knowledge levels might be high, several challenges can prevent drug shop workers from contributing to more prudent ABU at farms, for example, lack of proper diagnosis, commercial interests and individual farmer motives, often in combination with poor compliance to regulations.

Understanding Vietnamese chicken farmers' knowledge and practices related to antimicrobial resistance using an item response theory approach.

Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a threat to animal and human health, as well as food security and nutrition. Development of AMR is accelerated by over- and misuse of antimicrobials as seen in many livestock systems, including poultry production. In Vietnam, high AMR levels have been reported previously within poultry production, a sector which is dominated by small-scale farming, even though it is intensifying. This study focuses on understanding small- and medium-scale chicken farmers' knowledge and practices related to AMR by applying an item response theory (IRT) approach, which has several advantages over simpler statistical methods. Methods: Farmers representing 305 farms in Thai Nguyen province were interviewed from November 2021 to January 2022, using a structured questionnaire. Results generated with IRT were used in regression models to find associations between farm characteristics, and knowledge and practice levels. Results: Descriptive results showed that almost all farmers could buy veterinary drugs without prescription in the local community, that only one third of the farmers received veterinary professional advice or services, and that the majority of farmers gave antibiotics as a disease preventive measure. Regression analysis showed that multiple farm characteristics were significantly associated to farmers' knowledge and practice scores. Conclusion: The study highlights the complexity when tailoring interventions to move towards more medically rational antibiotic use at farms in a setting with high access to over-the-counter veterinary drugs and low access to veterinary services, since many on-farm factors relevant for the specific context need to be considered.

An investigation into aflatoxin M 1 in slaughtered fattening pigs and awareness of aflatoxins in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a hydroxylated metabolite formed after aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is consumed by humans and animals; it can be detected in urine, milk and blood. It is well recognized that AFB1 is toxic to humans and other animals. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies aflatoxins as group 1 carcinogens and AFM1 as group 2B carcinogen. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the exposure of pigs to aflatoxins as well as to assess the public awareness of aflatoxins among people in five provinces in Vietnam. RESULTS: A total of 1920 urine samples were collected from slaughterhouses located in five provinces. Overall, the positive rate of AFM1 was 53.90% (95% confidence interval 51.64-56.15) using a cut-off of 0.15 µg/kg (range: limit of detection to 13.66 µg/kg, median: 0.2 µg/kg and mean: 0.63 µg/kg). A total of 252 people from the general population were interviewed from 5 provinces, and overall 67.86% reported being aware of aflatoxins. We also found that men and more highly educated had significantly increased awareness of aflatoxins compared to the females and primary/secondary school group. The respective odds ratios (ORs) were as follows: "male" group (OR: 2.64), "high school educated" group (OR: 3.40) and "college/university or more educated" group (OR: 10.20). CONCLUSIONS: We can conclude that pigs in Vietnam are exposed to aflatoxins to varying degrees, and there may be a risk that pork products could contain AFM1. Further investigation is needed into the possible health impacts as well as to aid in establishing regulations for animal feed to reduce the health impacts in humans and animals.

Sero-prevalence of specific Leptospira serovars in fattening pigs from 5 provinces in Vietnam.

BACKGROUND: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic bacterial disease with a worldwide distribution. In Vietnam, leptospirosis is considered endemic. In pigs, leptospirosis can result in reproductive problems (such as abortion and infertility) which lead to economic loss. In addition, transmission to people presents a public health risk. In Vietnam, few national studies have been conducted on sero-prevalence of leptospirosis in pigs. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the sero-prevalence and incidence of presumptive infective leptospira serovars in fattening pigs from 5 provinces in Vietnam. RESULTS: Blood samples from fattening pigs were randomly collected at slaughterhouses. We collected 1959 sera samples from 5 provinces (Son La, Hanoi, Nghe An, Dak Lak and An Giang) between January and early June 2016. The microscopic agglutination test (MAT) was used to identify the serogroups/serovars. Overall, the sero-prevalence was 8.17% (95% CI: 6.99-9.47) and serovar Tarassovi Mitis (2.19%) had the highest prevalence followed by Australis (1.94%), Javanica (1.68%) and Autumnalis (1.17%) using a cutoff (≥ 1:100). The sero-prevalence among female pigs (5.28%, 95% CI: 3.94-6.93) was slightly higher than among male pigs (4.88%, 95% CI: 3.51-6.58), but this difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Leptospirosis in pigs may be a useful indicator of the human/animal burden in Vietnam and a risk assessment tool. The presence of some of the identified serovars suggests that wildlife may play an important role in the transmission of leptospirosis to domesticated pigs in Vietnam. Therefore, strengthened monitoring and surveillance systems are needed to better understand the epidemiology of the disease and prevent or reduce infection in humans and animals.