Prize-winning schoolgirls take quantum leap from babies’ bottoms to dairy cows’ udders

Two Co Limerick schoolgirls have found a widely-used cream for soothing babies’ bottoms is a great remedy for dairy cows with sore udders caused by mastitis.

Meabh Mulcahy, aged 16, from Coolcappa, Rathkeale, and Mairead O’Donnell, also 16, from Ballingaddy, Kimallock, yesterday won a schools science award for their discovery, which could save farmers huge sums of money.

Both girls, transition year students St Mary’s Secondary school in Charleville, did their research on the family farms run by their dads, Liam Mulcahy and David O’Donnell. They found that a tub of Sudocrem costing €4 can clear mastitis in a dairy cow just as quickly as widely-used veterinary injections which cost €60 per treatment.