.Dairy production plays an important role in the lives of many people in Rwanda and Nepal. The aim of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems (LSIL; Gainesville, FL) is to introduce new location-appropriate technologies and to improve management practices, skills, knowledge, capacity, and access to inputs across livestock value chains in developing countries such as Rwanda and Nepal. To assist LSIL, our first aim was to describe gaps in the management of cows and in milk processing that constrain milk quality and quantity in Rwanda and Nepal. Our second aim was to describe training-of-trainers workshops in both countries as an initial response to the findings from the first objective. We conducted literature reviews and did rapid needs assessments in both countries. The literature reviews revealed similar aspects of the challenges of smallholder crop-livestock mixed farming systems in both countries. Many farms are struggling with feed quality, reproduction, and health of dairy cows. Milk prodre well received. We concluded that Rwanda and Nepal both have smallholder dairy farms that often face similar challenges such as lack of quality feeds, needs for basic dairy management education, low cattle productivity, and undesirable milk quality. Training-of-trainers programs to address these basic issues may be successful. Continued improvements in the dairy value chain depend on available resources for education.Milk and milk products are essential in the diets of the Borana pastoral community in Ethiopia. Traditional handling and processing of dairy products using basic equipment and infrastructure coupled with a preference for raw milk consumption pose potential health risks to consumers. We tested the effect of an intervention designed to improve the hygienic handling and safe consumption of milk on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of women who produce and sell dairy products. The intervention consisted of 16 h of training on good milk production practices and prevention of milk-borne diseases. A total of 120 women were trained and their KAP assessed at baseline (pretraining), immediately after training, and 6 mo after training. Overall, training increased the knowledge score of the participants from 75.6 to 91.4% in the immediate post-training assessment, and to 90.0% at 6 mo post-training. Compared with pretraining (58.8%), we found a statistically significant difference in the overall attitude score at the immediate post-training evaluation (64.7%) but not 6 mo after (61.4%). 2-Aminoethanethiol chemical structure We observed a similar increase in the understanding of correct practices from 49.5% at pretraining to 64.7% 6 mo following the training. For some desirable attitudes and practices, the proportion of women reporting adoption at pretraining was low and the change derived from training still left one-third of respondents displaying a negative attitude and a quarter of them reporting wrong practices. We recommend that future training interventions be complemented with locally adaptable technologies, provision of incentives, and creation of an enabling environment including improved access to clean water and sanitation facilities to affect not only knowledge, but also attitudes and ultimately practices in the long term.Dairy animals are an important source of income, food, and nutritional security, and improvements in the productivity of dairy animals substantially improve the wellbeing of smallholder dairy farmers. As in other developing countries, dairy animals are key for rural livelihoods in Nepal but often suffer from mastitis-a production disease causing economic losses to farmers, challenges to the dairy processing industry, and possible health hazards to consumers. Studies show that the prevalence of subclinical mastitis in Africa and Asia typically exceeds 50%, threatening animal wellbeing, farmers, dairy processors, and consumers. We conducted a study in Nepal to develop a technology training package to control mastitis in dairy animals. Following identification of knowledge gaps, a technology package consisting of (1) developing good husbandry practices, implementing mastitis detection and control technologies; and (2) training technicians and farmers was implemented. A strategy was subsequently established to provide feedback to farmers in dairy cooperatives on the subclinical mastitis status of their cows. The package was applied in the mid-western region of Nepal. Six months after implementation, we observed a reduction in subclinical mastitis prevalence from 55% (baseline) to 28% (endline; n = 432) in dairy cows and from 78% to 18% (n = 216) in buffalo. These positive study outcomes strongly suggest that the mastitis technology training package should be scaled across smallholder farmers within and beyond Nepal to control mastitis in dairy animals.The aim of this study was to generate knowledge on the most important milk quality and safety attributes, including somatic cell count (SCC), total bacterial count (TBC), Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Brucella spp. antibodies and antibiotic residues in milk in the chain from farm to milk collection center (MCC) in Rwanda. In addition, we investigated farm and management factors associated with high TBC, SCC, and Salmonella counts. Raw milk was sampled at the farm and MCC levels. Milk samples were taken from dairy farms linked to 2 selected MCC in each of the 4 provinces in Rwanda. In total, 406 bulk milk samples from 406 farms and 32 bulk milk samples from 8 MCC were collected and analyzed. Farm milk average SCC varied between 180 × 103 and 920 × 103 cells/mL, whereas average SCC in milk samples at MCC varied between 170 × 103 and 1,700 × 103 cells/mL. The mean milk TBC of different farms per MCC varied between 1.1 × 106 and 1.6 × 107 cfu/mL, whereas in milk samples from different MCC, the mean TBC rangedated with high SCC. Lack of teat washing before milking was the only factor associated with Salmonella contamination of milk at the farm level. This study indicated high TBC and SCC of milk samples at the farm and MCC levels, which indicates both microbial contamination of milk and poor udder health in dairy cows. Presence of E. coli, Salmonella, and Brucella antibodies in milk was common, but finding antibiotic residues in milk was uncommon.