The technology

Light is the measurement.

MooScan turns the udder's own immune response into an optical signal — quantifying neutrophil activity in raw milk to read inflammation directly, not infer it from a cell count.

Scientific premise

Inflammation is an immune event!

When an udder is inflamed, the milk fills with activated immune cells. Their activation state — not merely their number — is the signal that matters clinically.

  • 99%In an inflamed udder, up to 99% of cells in milk are immune cells.
  • 90%Of those immune cells, up to 90% are neutrophils.
  • ROSWhen activated, neutrophils release reactive oxygen species — a direct chemical fingerprint of inflammation.
Activated neutrophils emit light · inert cells stay dark
The assay

Chemiluminescence, quantified.

A simple reagent reaction converts neutrophil activity into light a sensor can count.

1

Add the sample

A 2 ml sample of raw milk is placed into a 35 mm plate with dried luminol reagent.

2

Trigger the reaction

Luminol reacts with reactive oxygen species from activated neutrophils, emitting light.

3

Measure the light

A high-sensitivity sensor in a heated dark chamber measures the light emission.

4

Read the result

Emission rate maps to neutrophil activation — and therefore udder inflammation — in ~30 seconds.

Desktop prototype

A working instrument, today.

The MooScan desktop unit is a real, dark-chamber measurement device — not a concept. Multiple prototype generations have run live comparative measurements on raw milk.

An inline variant has been scoped for robotic milking stations, using off-the-shelf fluidics to sample the main milk channel automatically.

Form factorDark-chamber benchtop, ~25 × 20 × 14 cm
SensorHigh-sensitivity light detector
Sample tray35 mm plates, up to 38 mm samples
Sample volume2 ml of raw milk
Measurement time~30 seconds per sample
Consumable cost~$0.5 / sample (plate)
Dynamic rangeTens to tens of millions of photons / second
Why it's different

Cell count vs. immune activity.

Somatic Cell Count

Reference lab standard (FOSS / ICBA)
  • Counts cells whether or not they're inflamed
  • Lab-based and batched, off-site
  • Typically once per month, per cow
  • Not per-milking or per-quarter
  • Reports after milk is already lost

MooScan

Optical neutrophil-activity quantification
  • Measures immune activation, the clinical signal
  • On-farm or in-line at the milking station
  • Every milking, if you want it
  • Resolves inflammation per udder quarter
  • Flags pre-clinical mastitis early

Want the validation data?

We'll walk you through the bench results, the reference-standard comparison, and the pilot protocol.