Vegetable cultivation is essential to Vietnam’s agricultural development strategy. Meloidogyne spp. has caused a root-knot disease which is dangerous due to decreased plant vitality, yield, and quality. This research aimed to select fungal strains controlling Meloidogynes spp., which causes root knots in vegetable plants. As a result, strains of the fungi Paecilomyces sp., Mariannaea sp., and Penicillium sp. effectively inactivated second-stage juveniles (J2) after 72 h of inoculum. Specifically, Paecilomyces sp. was immobilized in 64.5% of the nematodes, Mariannaea sp. was 72%, and Penicillium sp. was 70%, compared to only 13.5% in the control group without fungal inoculation. In a net house experiment investigating the influence of fungal strains on J2 in Malabar spinach (Basella alba L.), the Mariannae sp. strain inoculated on plants at a density of 107 cfu/mL produced the best results in terms of root length (25.3 cm) and root weight (0.4 g) compared to the control uninoculation (18.5 cm; 0.3 g) and the control with only the nematode (11.2 cm; 0.2 g). Additionally, the Mariannaea sp. strain significantly reduced the number of juvenile nematodes per 50 g of soil (15.7 J2) compared to the control (160 J2) in Malabar spinach (Basella alba L.) in a net house.

In the field of agricultural data analysis, achieving high quality classification modeling remains a significant challenge due to the inherent variability and complexity of agricultural datasets. This study investigated cutting-edge approaches to enhance model performance through data augmentation techniques and the application of advanced deep learning models to artificially enlarge the training dataset, thereby improving model generalizability and robustness. Additionally, the study evaluated the efficacy of state-of-the-art models (i.e., ViT-Ti/16, CaiT-XXS-24, XCiT-T12, Resnet26, ConvNeXt-T) for agricultural data analysis. The experimental results revealed a marked improvement in terms of accuracy and F1-Score when applied data augmentation into the training session. This underscored the potential of these techniques to significantly advance the field of agricultural informatics. Briefly, the findings contributed to the development of more reliable and high performance models for agricultural practices.

The objective of this study was to assess the current situation of beef cattle production in households in some districts of Lam Dong province. Ninety household beef cattle farms (HBCFs) were chosen from Cat Tien, Don Duong and Duc Trong districts (10 households/commune and 3 communes/district) to perform the survey using pre-printed questionnaires and direct interviews on a cross-section study model and the Participatory Rural Appraisal method. Results showed that beef cattle husbandry householders have an extensive experience in beef farming with 36.7% having 11 - 15 years of experience (P < 0.01), although their educational levels were low, with 31.1% at the primary level (P < 0.01). There were 7.3 cattle/household in the total number of herd and and a beef cattle group of 4.7 cattle. Most households operated a husbandry scale from 1 - 5 cattle/household comprising 60.00% of the total herd (P < 0.01) and 69.32% of the beef cattle group (P < 0.01). High-yielding breeds dominated the current beef production systems in HBCFs, in which BBB cross-breeds accounted for 57.95% and 76.84% of households and total cattle, respectively; Charolais cross-breed accounted for 25.00 and 12.6%, respectively (P < 0.01). There was a high level (92.22%) of husbandry and management method as tied stall form (P < 0.01). Additionally, 76,14% of HBCFs applied fattening procedure for beef cattle before selling to abattoirs (P < 0.01), but artificial insemination application in HBCFs was just 48.86% (P = 0.763). The average daily gain of the beef herd for whole husbandry and fattening periods reached 580.3 and 696.4 g/day, respectively. Briefly, these results suggest that there are some limitations in beef cattle production on household farms for developing sustainably high-yielding beef cattle farming in Lam Dong. Therefore, there should be more application of scientific advancements to improve the present situation.

Tight junction (TJ) proteins play a critical function in forming a strong intestinal barrier that protects against ingested pathogens and harmful agents. This study aimed to utilize multiplex RT PCR (mRT-PCR) to assess the expression of ZO-1, Claudin-1, and Occludin genes at mRNA level in the intestines of pigs using specific primer pairs yielding amplicons of 167 bp, 500 bp, and 235 bp, respectively. The mRT-PCR protocol was optimized for annealing temperature and primer concentrations, including primer specificity, and determining the limit of detection. Subsequently, the optimized mRT-PCR was applied to detect these genes in 48 pig intestinal samples, including duodenum, jejunum and ileum. The mRT-PCR demonstrated specificity for these genes with the annealing temperature at 58°C. The primer pair ratio for ZO-1, Claudin-1, and Occludin was 0.4 µM:0.4 µM:0.4 µM (2:2:2). The detection rate for ZO-1, Claudin-1, and Occludin genes were 83.33% (40/48), 29.17% (14/48) and 4.17% (2/48) respectively. Intriguingly, one sample tested positive for all three mRNA, while negative results were observed in 12.5% of the samples. In conclusion, in the present study, the mRT-PCR was successfully established to detect ZO-1, Claudin-1, and Occludin expression in pig intestinal tissues.

This laboratory-scale study was designed to investigate the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), ammonia (NH3), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gases during the bio-conversion of agro-waste by black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) for 14 days. The study included three experimental treatments: a control group without waste and BSFL (T0, lab background), treatment 1 containing waste with BSFL (T1), and treatment 2 containing only waste (without BSFL, T2). Process efficiency was measured by waste reduction and bio-conversion rate. Gas emissions from the process were collected using the static chamber method and determined using the gas absorption method. The results in the treatment T1 showed a notable BSFL survival rate of 99.7%, indicating a favorable condition for BSFL growth. The waste reduction rate in the T1 treatment (74.3%) was approximately two times higher than that of T2 (38.7%), indicating the ability of BSFL to decompose organic wastes efficiently. The pH and moisture content of the waste were monitored throughout the 14-day trial for both T1 and T2, and similar trends were observed. Compared to T0, gas emissions from T1 and T2 were higher. Furthermore, the CO2 and H2S emissions in T1 were higher than those in T2, while NH3 levels released in T2 were relatively higher than in T1. The preliminary results presented here could be the basis of future studies on gas emission via BSFL treatment of agro-waste.