Osteopathy: A new approach to improving dairy cow production?

After treatment, it’s common for farms to see an increase in milk production. However, there are no figures on the impact of manipulative osteopathic treatments on milk production: is it just an impression, or does it really improve production?

To answer this question, the Ecole Française d’Ostéopathie Animale (EFOA; Caen, France), accompanied by the scientific team of Lab To Field (a research centre in Dijon, France), has launched a research project to evaluate the effect of osteopathic treatment on the performance of healthy dairy cows. A world first.

A robust experimental design

A total of 100 Prim’Holstein dairy cows (32 primiparous and 68 multiparous) from a single farm were recruited for this study. The researchers chose these based on individual milk production during the 2 weeks preceding the start of the trial (average 31.3 kg), physiological status (pregnancy, stage of lactation), and cow parity. A ‘Treated’ group and a ‘Control’ group were formed.

On the first day of the experiment, all 100 cows were seen by one of EFOA’s 4 osteopaths involved in the study. Cows in the treated group received an osteopathic manipulative treatment, and those in the control group a ‘placebo’ treatment. To ensure that the study was blind, the farmer didn’t know which of his cows had received the osteopathic treatment or the placebo treatment. All cows were then kept together in the same barn and their production data was monitored individually using a milking robot.

Increase in milk production after osteopathic treatment is quantified

When analysing the data, the researchers noted that the cows treated by the osteopaths produced more milk during the 2 weeks following treatment (an average of 30.6 kg versus 29.8 kg in the control group). The difference was most pronounced in multiparous cows: treated cows produced on average 1.3 kg more each day than cows in the control group. This translated into a significant increase in daily milk protein production (980 g vs. 943 g on average in the control group). After these 2 weeks, the difference between the 2 groups diminished.

Osteopathy in cows

Dr Cléo Omphalius, who led the study and presented the results at the last EAAP congress, comments: “We built this blind study, without preconceived ideas, in order to obtain objective results on the value of osteopathy in dairy farming. The results intrigued us, because now that we’ve observed these differences between the groups, we would like to understand what explains the duration of the effects measured, and the main mechanisms underlying these changes. We hope to be able to answer these questions in the future.”

This opens new prospects for osteopathy in the cattle industry.

For more info: www.efoa.fr and www.lab-to-field.com/en/

The research project was carried out between 2021 and 2022 and the results were presented at an international animal science congress (EAAP, Lyon, France, 26 August – 1 September 2023): Omphalius, C., Hardouin, A., Launay-Ventelon, M. & Julliand, S. (2023). Osteopathic manipulative treatment: a complementary approach to promote milk production in cows. 74th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science.