Luang Namtha Province Research Articles

Factors affecting the growth of small and medium Enterprises in Luangnamtha Province

The purpose of this study is to study the operating conditions and factors affecting the growth of small and medium enterprises in LuangNamtha Province. which uses descriptive study methods, surveys, and questionnaires to collect data from small and medium-sized enterprise operators who have registered enterprises at the Department of Industry and Trade in LuangNamtha Province according to the law in the number of 233 business units using basic statistics such as average value and standard deviation and analyzed with an ordinary least squares regression model. The results of the study found that most of the business operators are males aged between 37-43 years old, have a high degree of specialization, and have previous experience in the service sector, which a business is owned by a single Lao person. The registered capital of the business is less 100,000,000 kip, it is a source of funds for the family, there are between 5-20 people, the duration of the business operation is less 5 years, the customer group is in the province, the business is mainly in the commercial sector, but the performance is not good compared to last year. Such as, revenue and net profit decreased. The importance of factors affecting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in LuangNamtha province is very important. The factors affecting the growth of enterprises include four factors that have a relationship in the same direction, such as leadership factors affecting the growth of enterprises with a statistical significance level of 0.1, strategic decision-making factors affecting the growth of enterprises with a statistical significance level of 0.05, financial factors affecting the growth and stability of enterprises with a statistical significance level of 0.01 and 0.1, respectively, and marketing factors affecting the stability of the enterprise with a statistical significance level of 0.1.

The Change of Thaiyung Language

This research is to study the change of Thaiyung language, particularly the change of words in Yang language that use in the three generation. There are 400 w0rds are used to test the three generation at Namfa village, Viengphouka district, Luangnamtha province. There are 30 samples such as over 70 years old generation, 35-55 years old generation and 15-25 years old generation. The research is used linguistic separation use and linguistic voice translation criteria of words that use by three generations. The result found out that, there are three types of the same words used by three generations. There are four types of the same words used by two generations and there is a type of the different words used by three generations. The language used by three generations still use a lots of Yang words for communication. The first generation use Yang word (A) more than second and third generations. The second and third generations used Yang words with other words in social more than the first generation. And the third generation use other words (B) more than the first and second generations. This is because the third generation of teenagers is open and ready to accept new things all the time and prefer to use the national language (standard Lao language) to communicate with other ethnic groups in society. As a result, the use of the Yang language has diminished in daily life, or may have been used only when living with parents, families, and in a group of people who use the Yang language.

Agricultural commercialization in borderlands: Capturing the transformation of a tropical forest frontier through participatory mapping

Forest-frontier landscapes in the humid tropics display distinct land use change dynamics compared to other world regions, providing useful examples of current global environmental and development challenges. In northwestern Laos, part of the former Golden Triangle region, investments in value chains for commercial crops—mainly to fulfill Chinese market demands—have triggered various land use changes and put increasing pressure on remaining biodiverse forest areas. Capturing the existing land use change trajectories is a key initial step toward further studies assessing land use change impacts. However, methodological challenges arise when conducting spatially-explicit change assessments in these regions, given the high temporal variability of land use at the plot level, compounded by the paucity of good quality satellite imagery. Thus, we applied a novel approach combining analysis of very high-resolution (VHR) satellite imagery with participatory mapping. This enabled joint collection of annual land use information for the last 17 years together with local land users, shedding light on temporally dense land system dynamics. For decades, the government of Laos has sought to halt shifting cultivation, labeling it environmentally degrading, and to reduce poverty through promotion of permanent commodity-oriented commercial agriculture. Among other things, this gave rise to a boom in banana and rubber investments in Luang Namtha province in order to satisfy growing Chinese demand for these commodities. The present paper investigates the impact of these cash crop booms on land use transitions and whether they reduced pressure on forest-frontier areas, as ostensibly desired by government authorities. Our study is among the first to demonstrate in a spatially-explicit manner that subsistence agriculture—in less than two decades—has virtually disappeared in northern Laos due to diverse cash-crop production and agricultural commercialization initiatives linked to Chinese investments. As subsistence-focused cultivation systems are being replaced by land uses solely aimed at commercial production for export, a telecoupled land system is being developed in northwestern Laos with potentially manifold impacts for sustainable development.

Impact of Commercial Tree Plantations on Smallholder Live-stock Farmers and Their Livelihoods in Lao PDR

We investigated how commercial tree plantations under Lao forest restoration plan toward 2035, influence socio-economic conditions of household. We also seek to calculate environmental income of rural households in Laos. The questionnaire survey was conducted at two villages (Ban Hinheup and Ban Thoulakhom) from Vientiane province (the central) and two villages (Ban Luangnamtha and Ban Viengphoukha) from Luangnamtha Province (the north). Our survey results showed that the economies of the two study villages in central Laos relied moderately on cash and subsistence value of the environment while this only contributed slightly to the other two villages in the north. Villagers around the plantation concession boundary in the plantation village tends to receive benefits from tree plantations while the richest households from Ban Thoulakhom obtained a major proportion of their total household income from rice and livestock production. Several farmers in study area select eucalypt and/or rubber species, which offer profitable and sustainable land-use choices. Our results also revealed that perception towards the effects of Eucalyptus plantation tends to differ from those towards rubber plantations. Rubber plantations in Luangnamtha Province were found to have a higher economic contribution to local livelihoods, but Eucalyptus plantations were perceived to have a less negative environmental impact and could provide more opportunity for local farmers to either inter-crop their annual crops in the plantations or obtain income from the plantation employment activities. Given the rapidly dynamic policies, executing complex policy change needs sustained effort, and the related state organisations need to be pro-actively involved in dialogue with industries and the communities to be more effective. Future policy options for sustainable planted forest development in Laos should ensure that commercial forest plantations offer the pathway for economic, environmental, and social benefits for rural communities.

Does forest conversion to tree plantations affect properties of subsoil horizons? Findings from mainland Southeast Asia (Lao PDR, Yunnan-China)

While forest conversion to tree plantations in northern Laos is ongoing since the 1990s, its impact on soil properties is yet to be assessed. Our objectives were (i) to assess changes in soil properties, including subsoil horizons down to 160 cm, in <14-year-old teak and 21-year-old rubber tree plantations compared to forest soils, in Luang Namtha province, Laos; (ii) review the recently published studies on the impact of tree plantations in neighboring Xishuangbanna, China; and (iii) to provide, based on (i) and (ii) broad recommendations for sustainable soil management in areas of northern Laos converted to tree plantations.We analyzed selected chemical and physical properties of soil collected at 6 depths, from surface to a depth of 160 cm, along hillslopes, at the locations of 4 paired sites. All layers (0–160 cm) were very acidic pH (≤ 4.3) and depleted in exchangeable cations. Compared to their levels in the surface layer (0–10 cm), organic carbon content (21 g kg−1) and specific pore volume (0.68 cm3 g−1) decreased by 62% and 44%, respectively at 40 cm, and by 81% and 53%, respectively at 110 cm. Forest conversion to tree plantations induced a decrease in pore volume and carbon content in the topsoil, but the subsoil remained unaffected. In rubber tree plantations, the nitrogen content dropped in all layers, including subsoil. In teak tree plantations, pH and phosphorus content increased in the deepest layers. Studies from Xishuangbanna reported comparable degradations, also limited to the upper layers, following conversion to rubber tree plantations. Some isolated studies mentioned some apparent improvements of soil properties, related to textural differences.Overall, the only significant subsoil degradation consisted in N depletion (0–160 cm) under rubber plantations. Even though the impact of forest conversion on soil properties, up to two decades following tree plantation, appeared limited to the uppermost soil layers, the observed alteration of soil porosity may have an impact on runoff and erosion, inducing irreversible degradation of soil functions and productive potential. The subtle nature of such changes hampers adequate perception of their actual importance by farmers and stakeholders who likely have the false impression that soils are unaffected by forest conversion to tree plantations. Consequently, an enforcement of soil conservation practices is recommended when establishing commercial tree plantations on the naturally nutrient-depleted and low porosity Acrisols of this region.

Impact of Changing Swidden-Based Farming to Rubber-Based Farming on Food Security in Luang Namtha Province, Lao PDR

Although swidden-based farming has traditionally been practiced by the people in Lao PDR, this system is considered to result in significant environmental degradation. Thus, rubber-based farming was introduced as an alternative to food crops grown under swidden farming, thereby affecting household food security. Thus, this study aimed to compare the impacts of traditional swidden-based farming (SBF), rubber-based farming (RBF), and swidden–rubber-based farming on food security in Luang Namtha province, Laos. Two villages were selected for a case study. A total sample of 195 households was selected using the stratified random sampling method. A face-to-face household (HH) questionnaire was used for interviews. The results showed that households practicing RBF alone showed the lowest level of food security and highest vulnerability in terms of food security. No households in this group reached the food security level. The SRBF group exhibited a greater level of food security than that of either SBF or RBF alone. Two dimensions of food security—food availability and food access—were used to investigate the household food security level associated with the three farming types in this paper.

Tourism Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative: BRI and Tourism Opportunities in Phayao Province, Thailand

The objectives of this research are 1. to study the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) fundamental concepts in comparisonwith other multilateral tourism cooperative frameworks in Phayao Province, 2. to analyze the importance, benefits, andlimitations of the BRI initiative, including problems, obstacles and tourism opportunities in Phayao Province according to thethe Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperative framework, 3. to give recommendations on policies and measures for tourismpromotion of Phayao Province under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperative framework. The research tool was usedPESTEL analysis, SWOT analysis and TOWS analysis method, The population and sample group in this research work wereselected by purposive sampling and consist of two main groups, which are the group including the government sectors and theprivate sectors of Thailand that includes Phayao Province and areas in the Lao PDR consisting of Sainyabuli province, LuangNamtha province, and areas in the China Mainland comprising of Kunming city and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.The results of the study indicated that Phayao Province has potential due to the borderline with the Lao PDR in Ban Huak, wherethe government has approved and promoted the temporarily permitted area at Ban Huak to be a permanent border crossing in2018. When both countries border checkpoints had been promoted, it causes an expansion in terms of trade and investment,including more tourism. It is a gateway that connects the economic corridors of the North of Lao PDR and northern Thailand.This border-crossing route is an interconnection between Thailand via Phayao Province to Luang Prabang, where the ChinaLaos railway station is located. The Ban Huak border checkpoint journey to Luang Prabang is only 297 kilometers and canconnect to southern China by the China-Laos railway. The service will be available in December 2021. This route will providean opportunity to connect Phayao province to the New Silk Road of the 21st Century or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Itwill enable cooperation in the field of trade, investment, and tourism between the three countries.

Transition From Subsistence Agriculture to Rubber Plantations in Northern Laos: Analysis of Household Livelihood Strategies by Ethnicity and Gender

The study examined livelihood changes in eight villages in Luang Namtha province of northern Lao PDR following the expansion in rubber plantations and analyzed its impact on gender roles and relations. All study villages are engaged in rubber production, but the impact is shaped by the context and history of the particular location. The study has demonstrated the importance of feminist political ecologist approach in analyzing the conjuncture and intersectionality, as well as the location that shapes these conditions to better understand the gendered impact of the introduction of rubber production. The concept of social interface has helped us to identify the shock that women and men face and the changes in access to resources as a result of the shock and the agencies that the people exercised.

Microbial contamination in the communal-use Lao tobacco waterpipe.

BackgroundThe use of the Asian tobacco waterpipe (TWP) in the Lao People's Democratic Republic represents a potential communal source of infectious disease. This practice of smoking can lead to weakened defences of a smoker's respiratory epithelium, making the smoker vulnerable to respiratory diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019, tuberculosis and others.MethodsThis study evaluated the water quality and hygiene factors among 43 smokers of five villages in rural Luang Namtha Province. Water samples were collected from participant's TWPs and assessed for the presence of Escherichia coli, coliforms and aerobic plate count (APC) bacteria using the 3M Petrifilm.ResultsThe microbial indicator testing results were 95% positive for the APC, 38% positive for coliforms and 17% positive for the E. coli indicator. The concentrations were highest for the APC, with an average of 106 colony forming units (cfu)/ml, followed by coliforms with <100 cfu/ml and lowest for E. coli with <10 cfu/ml. Most TWPs were infrequently cleaned, heavily used and contained a warm, brown-coloured water.ConclusionsThe warm, dark and moist internal water container may facilitate microbial survival and growth. The use of a TWP adds several unstudied modes of transmission to a complex and common biobehavioural and environmental pathogen exposure. Future TWP cessation activities should be tailored to consider risks of infectious disease transmission.

Sentinel-2 red-edge spectral indices (RESI) suitability for mapping rubber boom in Luang Namtha Province, northern Lao PDR

Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) tree cultivation is being continuously expanded northward by replacing evergreen forests and swidden-related regenerated vegetation across the uplands of mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), e.g., Laos, a landlocked mountainous country. The non-native tree establishment in the northern tropical edge, or the non-traditional suitable planting area, provides stable supplies of natural latex, yet also leads to severe ecological degradation and environmental effects in water conservation, soil quality, rainforest fragmentation and biodiversity. Rubber plantations in the northern part of MSEA are normally characterized by periodic deciduous during the dry season, along with a lengthy defoliation-foliation duration, because of seasonal variations in temperature and precipitation. It thus lays a phenological and physiological base for dynamics monitoring with common multispectral (e.g., near-infrared and short-wave infrared bands) satellites, particularly Landsat. However, whether Sentinel-2 red-edge based algorithms are suitable for discriminating rubber plantations is not yet exclusively reported. Here, we developed a red-edge spectral indices (RESI) method through the normalization of three red-edge bands and applied it to identify and map rubber plantations in Luang Namtha Province of northern Laos, where a rubber boom begun in the mid-2000s. The RESI algorithm highlights the sensitivity of red-edge bands to the changes in moisture content and canopy density of rubber plantations. The area of mature rubber plantations was estimated to be 771.2 km2 in this province bordering southwest China in 2018, which was nearly twice as much as that of 2011, with the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient up to 92.50% and 0.91, respectively. Our phenology-based RESI approach not only indicates that Sentinel-2 imagery holds significant potential for monitoring rubber plantations, but also improves the remotely-sensed methods of rubber boom mapping via introducing the red-edge channel.

Precarity and Vulnerability: Rubber Plantations in Northern Laos and Northern Shan State, Myanmar

ABSTRACTIn northern Laos and Northern Shan State in Myanmar, there has occurred a rapid expansion of rubber plantations, both by large economic concessions and by smallholder farmers. The impact of the introduction of rubber differs by place. This article analyses the impact of the introduction of rubber in two villages in Northern Shan State and two in Luang Namtha Province, Lao PDR. We differentiate vulnerability and precarity while assessing the changes that women and men have experienced, which allows us to problematise the long-term vulnerability of seemingly well-adapted farming households. We argue that the strategies that farmers have chosen to improve their situation today will lead to unsustainable livelihoods in the long term. We also link the analysis of vulnerability and precarity to changes in household gender relations. Notwithstanding increased precarity, rising household cash incomes and external support have improved women’s position in some places while hardly affecting gender relations in others.

New Asian phyllocoptines (Eriophyidae, Phyllocoptinae): descriptions of Namengia latifloris gen. nov. &amp;amp; sp. nov. (Acaricalini) and Petanovicia cathartica sp. nov. (Phyllocoptini) from Northwest Laos

One new genus and two new species of eriophyoid mites of the subfamily Phyllocoptinae Nalepa from Luang Namtha Province, Northwest Laos are described and illustrated. They are: Namengia latifloris gen. nov. &amp; sp. nov. (Phyllocoptinae, Acaricalini) infesting Dendrocalamus latiflorus Munro (Poaceae), Petanovicia cathartica sp. nov. (Phyllocoptinae, Phyllocoptini) infesting Allamanda cathartica L. (Apocynaceae). These new species are vagrant on the leaves of their host plant respectively causing no visible damage.

First Record of the Mycoheterotrophic Orchid Lecanorchis taiwaniana from Nam Ha National Protected Area, Northern Laos

A new locality of Lecanorchis taiwaniana from Nam Ha National Protected Areas, Luang Namtha Province, northern Laos is reported and a description of the species based on the Laos material is provided.

The Sukhothai Zone (Permian–Triassic island-arc domain of Southeast Asia) in Northern Laos: Insights from Triassic carbonates and foraminifers

In mainland Southeast Asia, Permian–Triassic successive subduction of the Paleo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere formed an island-arc system called the Sukhothai Zone, along the margin of the Indochina Block. This zone has been considered to extend from Northern Thailand to southwestern Yunnan of China, but so far lacked concrete evidence from northern Laos in between. This makes basic geotectonic subdivision of mainland Southeast Asia ambiguous. In this study Triassic foraminifers from limestone distributed in the Long area of Luang Namtha Province (northwestern Laos) solve this problem. The relevant limestone has a kilometer-sized extent and was previously assigned to the Carboniferous–Early Permian based only on lithological grounds in regional geological mapping. Its Triassic age is demonstrated for the first time based on foraminifers. We discriminated from this limestone Aulotortus sinuosus, A. tumidus, Ophthalmidium danneri, Endotriada tyrrhenica, Endoteba obturata, Endotebanella kocaeliensis, Diplotremina astrofimbriata, Duostomina biconvexa, and Palaeolituonella majzoni, and concluded that the fauna is referable to the Carnian (early Late Triassic). Cement-rich reefal sediments consisting of Carniphytes multisiphonatus-microbial boundstone and sparse-allochem bioclastic grainstone containing abundant fragments of Plexoramea gracilis are common in this limestone. They suggest open-marine sedimentation on a shallow carbonate platform, possibly comparable to a cement-dominated upper-slope “Tubiphytes” reef environment found elsewhere in the Triassic. In neighboring mainland Thailand, Carnian limestone with similar lithological and paleontological properties is found only in the Doi Long Formation distributed in the Sukhothai Zone. This evidence provides a firm basis for the tectonostratigraphic correlation of the Sukhothai Zone, in northern Laos. Consequently, our study is critical in giving a clue to clarify the distribution and extension in northern Laos of a Permian–Triassic island-arc domain, the Sukhothai Zone, which is one of the major tectonostratigraphic units comprising mainland Southeast Asia. In this paper, we also described two encrusting foraminifers having multi-chambered (septate) shells, which have been seldom documented in Triassic foraminiferal literature.

Observations of illegal wildlife trade in Boten, a Chinese border town within a Specific Economic Zone in northern Lao PDR

This study reports on the illegal wildlife trade in the town of Boten, a Specific Economic Zone in the Luang Namtha Province of Lao PDR, located 1 km from the Chinese border. A one-day survey was conducted in April 2016, involving a combination of direct observations of open trade and informal discussions with traders. This was matched against a rapid evaluation of the country's primary wildlife law that was effective at the time of the survey, to assess wildlife trade against regulatory controls. We recorded approximately 980 individual items comprising live animals, their parts and products from at least 13 species of mammals and two species of reptiles in seven outlets. Trade in wildlife for medicinal use was dominant, particularly involving bears. Bear-based products and bear parts made up 43% (or 425 individual items) of all products observed. We also observed at least 40 live bears in a bear facility. Other wildlife parts and products recorded included approximately 200 pangolin scales, 74 pieces of elephant skin and seven bottles of tiger Panthera tigris wine. Almost all trade recorded was deemed to be against national law, illustrating lax, or no law enforcement. Although only based on a one-day survey, findings confirm the important and active role Boten plays in the illegal wildlife trade, where an inherent link with China was apparent. All businesses were operated by Chinese nationals, revealed from discussions with the traders. Lao PDR's Economic Zones are known to cater to largely Chinese markets, including for the illegal sale of wildlife. Findings call for the need for much improved regulation and law enforcement, including within the Economic Zones, in adherence to national laws and in compliant obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

On the System. Boundary Choices, Implications, and Solutions in Telecoupling Land Use Change Research

Land-based production provides societies with indispensable goods such as food, feed, fibre, and energy. Yet, with economic globalisation and global population growth, the environmental and social trade-offs of their production are ever more complex. This is particularly so since land use changes are increasingly embedded in networks of long-distance flows of, e.g., material, energy, and information. The resulting scientific and governance challenge is captured in the emerging telecoupling framework addressing socioeconomic and environmental interactions and feedbacks between distal human-environment systems. Understanding telecouplings, however, entails a number of fundamental analytical problems. When dealing with global connectivity, a central question is how and where to draw system boundaries between coupled systems. In this article, we explore the analytical implications of setting system boundaries in the study of a recent telecoupled land use change: the expansion of Chinese banana plantation investments in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. Based on empirical material from fieldwork in Laos in 2014 and 2015, and drawing on key concepts from the ‘systems thinking’ literature, we illustrate how treating the system and its boundaries as epistemological constructs enable us to capture the differentiated involvement of actors, as well as the socio-economic and environmental effects of this land use change. In discussing our results, the need for more explicit attention to the trade-offs and implications of scale and boundary choices when defining systems is emphasised.

Rubber Plantation Expansion Related Land Use Change along the Laos-China Border Region

Spatial-temporal changes of land use and land cover in Luang Namtha Province in northern part of Laos was analyzed using Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper)/ETM+ (Enhanced Thematic Mapper) images from 1990 to 2010 since the opening of the Boten border adjacent to China. The results showed that: (1) “forest land—cultivated land—grassland” was the primary landscape structure. Woodland was the major land cover type, while paddy field was the dominant land use type replaced by rubber plantation in 2010; (2) since the opening of the border crossings in 1994, the rate and intensity of land use change were accelerated and enhanced gradually, especially in the recent decade. Woodland decreased significantly, while shrubland, rubber plantation and swidden land increased obviously. Rubber plantation and swidden land showed the fastest growth derived from woodland and shrubland, indicating continuous human activities and slash-and-burn farming; and (3) during 1990–2010, swidden land was mainly located in northern mountainous areas with frequently increased changing spatial distribution in the recent decade. Rubber plantation was mainly distributed in the border region of China and Laos with the expansion from the border region into the non-frontier of Laos with Luang Namtha City as the center. Woodland reduction was so obvious along the Kunming-Bangkok highway.

Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos

The scholarly debate around ‘global land grabbing’ is advancing theoretically, methodologically and empirically. This study contributes to these ongoing efforts by investigating a set of ‘small-scale land acquisitions’ in the context of a recent boom in banana plantation investments in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. In relation to the actors, scales and processes involved, the banana acquisitions differ from the state-granted large-scale land acquisitions dominating the literature on ‘land grabbing’ in Laos. Starting from the experience of a rural village in Laos, where two Chinese banana investors leased land on six-year contracts in 2010, we trace the strategies employed by the investors to gain access to the land, the experience of the villagers in the process and the outcome of the acquisitions in terms of land use change. The findings reveal how the investors established networks of local middlemen who facilitate negotiations over land directly at the village level, thus enabling them to circumvent any formal involvement of government authorities. The informal acquisition process also ensured a rapid and successful implementation of the plantations with consequent land use change, including the destruction of field structures, plot borders and irrigation systems, as well as erosion and heavy chemical input. Drawing upon the literature on ‘powers of exclusion’ and ‘control grabbing’, the paper argues that despite the apparent small-scale and short-term nature of these leases, the forceful acquisition strategies pursued by the investors coupled with the rapid land use conversion and associated cultivation practices results in strong and longer-term alienation of land from the local communities involved. This implies the need to take these more informal forms of land acquisitions into account when designing policies to address the negative implications of land grabbing in Laos and elsewhere.

The relationship between emotional intelligence and high risk sexual behaviors in women referring to central unit of forensic medicine in Tehran

The relationship between emotional intelligence and high risk sexual behaviors in women referring to central unit of forensic medicine in Tehran

Beriberi (Thiamine Deficiency) and High Infant Mortality in Northern Laos

BackgroundInfantile beriberi (thiamine deficiency) occurs mainly in infants breastfed by mothers with inadequate intake of thiamine, typically among vulnerable populations. We describe possible and probable cases of infantile thiamine deficiency in northern Laos.Methodology/Principal FindingsThree surveys were conducted in Luang Namtha Province. First, we performed a retrospective survey of all infants with a diagnosis of thiamine deficiency admitted to the 5 hospitals in the province (2007–2009). Second, we prospectively recorded all infants with cardiac failure at Luang Namtha Hospital. Third, we further investigated all mothers with infants (1–6 months) living in 22 villages of the thiamine deficiency patients’ origin. We performed a cross-sectional survey of all mothers and infants using a pre-tested questionnaire, physical examination and squat test. Infant mortality was estimated by verbal autopsy. From March to June 2010, four suspected infants with thiamine deficiency were admitted to Luang Namtha Provincial hospital. All recovered after parenteral thiamine injection. Between 2007 and 2009, 54 infants with possible/probable thiamine deficiency were diagnosed with acute severe cardiac failure, 49 (90.2%) were cured after parenteral thiamine; three died (5.6%). In the 22 villages, of 468 live born infants, 50 (10.6%, 95% CI: 8.0–13.8) died during the first year. A peak of mortality (36 deaths) was reported between 1 and 3 months. Verbal autopsy suggested that 17 deaths (3.6%) were due to suspected infantile thiamine deficiency. Of 127 mothers, 60 (47.2%) reported edema and paresthesia as well as a positive squat test during pregnancy; 125 (98.4%) respected post-partum food avoidance and all ate polished rice. Of 127 infants, 2 (1.6%) had probable thiamine deficiency, and 8 (6.8%) possible thiamine deficiency.ConclusionThiamine deficiency may be a major cause of infant mortality among ethnic groups in northern Laos. Mothers’ and children’s symptoms are compatible with thiamine deficiency. The severity of this nutritional situation requires urgent attention in Laos.