Laser lights on the cow's udder are a promising alternative to antibiotics.

Today, there is no effective alternative to antibiotic treatment of udder inflammation in dairy cows, but that could very well change soon.

In about a year's time, researchers from Aarhus University expect to present the results of an ongoing study investigating whether laser therapy can completely replace antibiotics in the treatment of udder inflammation. So far, the experiences are positive, but clear documentation is still lacking.

"It is meant to promote Danish food production, so when you choose Danish-produced animal products in the grocery store, you have the assurance that the use of antibiotics has been kept to an absolute minimum," says Birgitte Kjemtrup Høyer, who is a cattle advisor at ØkologiRådgivning Danmark.

More Expensive for the Organic Farmer

She expects that it will mainly be organic farmers who will adopt the method if its effectiveness is documented, as their costs are typically higher than conventional farmers when a cow develops udder inflammation.

It takes twice as long before organic milk can be sold after a cow has received antibiotics, and the organic farmer is not allowed to treat cattle themselves, which requires daily visits from a veterinarian until the treatment is completed.

If an adult animal or a calf is treated with veterinary medicines more than three times within 12 months, the animal loses its organic status.

In organic farming, there is also a industry recommendation to choose narrow-spectrum antibiotics with some exceptions.

The Chief Veterinarian Got the Idea

It was Glennie Christensen who originally came up with the idea for laser treatment. She was the chief veterinarian at a clinic where a woman could not get rid of her painful mastitis, despite being repeatedly treated with antibiotics. After a few laser treatments, she was cured. Her husband, who was a farmer, said: "If only it were as easy to remove udder inflammation in my cows."

When another farmer later came to have a bad knee treated, the conversation turned to laser and udder inflammation, and he invited Glennie Christensen to visit his cattle farm to test whether the technique could treat udder inflammation.

She then founded the company Neeo ApS, which in the project will further develop the laser equipment originally designed for humans.

During the project, researchers will test the method in a controlled trial, where a group of cows with mild udder inflammation are treated with laser, while another group is treated with inactive red light.

The researchers will closely monitor the cows' welfare, health, milk production, and milk quality to assess the effect of laser therapy.

A Multiple Benefit

In the second part of the project, laser therapy will be tested in a large trial across ten commercial herds. Here, the method will be compared with traditional antibiotic treatment to see if laser therapy is equally effective in curing udder inflammation—or mastitis, as it is also called.

If laser therapy proves to be effective, it will be a benefit for the animals, the farmers, and society. There is also potential to treat other types of infections, thereby further reducing the use of antibiotics.

"With this project, we have an exceptional opportunity to test an alternative to mastitis treatment. In the future, it could potentially reduce the use of antibiotics in milk production. It also has the positive effect of reducing food waste because less milk needs to be discarded," said associate professor Vivi Mørkøre Thorup at the start of the project last year.

Additionally, laser treatment will reduce the agricultural sector's CO2 emissions, as fewer dairy cows may need to be replaced due to udder inflammation, which lowers the need for young animals.

The article was written as part of the project 'Animal Welfare as a Branding Factor for Organic Farming' with support from the Danish Organic Farming Fund.