The Problem: Vietnam has been identified as one of hotspot countries for transboundary animal and emerging zoonotic diseases (TAEZDs) in Southeast Asia. Small- and medium-scale livestock farmers often face limited access to knowledge and practical guidance for implementing biosecurity measures. Providing interactive, on-site training is essential to enhancing farmers’ capacity to understand and apply effective biosecurity practices. 

The solution/ Innovation: The interactive training consisted of four main topics (stations) including farm biosecurity measures, vaccination scheme, antibiotic use, and introduction of using livestock and animal health mobile app (named FarmVetCare). The training provided general to specific information about diseases, symptoms, causes, prevention, treatment, and vaccination for livestock through a handbook, flip charts, practical (games) exercises, and discussion over four rotation rounds. Station rotation and interactive training with facilitated and encouraged participation, attention and feedback among livestock farmers, trainers and local authorities.  

Key results/ Impacts: A total of 504 participants were enrolled in the training and intervention, with a female representation of 53.8%, average age of 52 years old. The training achieved a significant improvement in overall knowledge regarding animal health (p < 0.001), with the overall rate of correct responses increasing from 75.4% (pre-training) to 84.3% (post-training). Better understanding of antibiotic misuse for animal weight gain purposes increased, from 30.6% to 84.3%. Improved awareness about substitution between vaccination and antibiotic use was recorded, by increased correct answers from 77.6% to 90.9%. 

Scalability and regional relevance: This study and innovation provide a scalable training framework to improve disease control and prevention through expanding veterinary services to other provinces and the region. Operationalize the One Health approach can be applied to address zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance, and animal diseases challenges at grass-root, community levels. The innovation offers a proven training framework for authorities to implement targeted training to small- and medium-scale livestock farmers in Vietnam as well as across Southeast Asian countries.