Seven‐week asynchronous twins in a buffalo heifer (Bubalus bubalis) associated with superfetation – A case report
- 22 December 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Reproduction in Domestic Animals
- Vol. 56 (3), 531-533
- https://doi.org/10.1111/rda.13882
Abstract
A female buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) of the Bulgarian Murrah breed aged 1,090 days was observed to give birth to a second newborn (normally developed male) after she had calved (normal female) 49 days earlier. This phenomenon is highly associated with her melatonin treatment within a trial for induction of puberty, the last ear implants being placed approximately 50 days before the assumed date of first mating, to which point the level of progesterone had increased dramatically. Despite none of the matings of the dam was visually witnessed to prove ovulation over an existing gestation, we take the liberty to qualify this phenomenon as superfetation, ruling out the other possible phenomena, namely embryonic diapause as it is highly unlikely to occur in any livestock species, and differentiated development of twin foetuses as it is associated with foetal malformation, which was not observed in this case.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- The enigma of embryonic diapauseDevelopment, 2017
- The concept of superfetation: a critical review on a ‘myth’ in mammalian reproductionBiological Reviews, 2010
- A CASE OF SUPERFOETATION IN THE COWAustralian Veterinary Journal, 1971
- Superfetation in a mouseThe Anatomical Record, 1949
- Retention of dead fetuses in utero and its bearing on the problems of superfetation and superfecundationThe Anatomical Record, 1920