A piglet with two bodies, one head and six legs has been born on a farm, with the shocked owner saying he had never seen or heard anything like it.
The animal was found on a property in Iraceminha, in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil after it was delivered on 6th November.
Farmer Enio Uebel said the sow had given birth to about seven healthy piglets when he later discovered the malformed one already dead.
He recounted: “That night, when the sow started giving birth, my wife and I tidied up the pigsty and laid out straw.
“I thought she was finished, but after more than an hour another one was born, and it was already dead. When I went to see, it was a piglet with one head and two bodies.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
After notifying a niece studying at the University of the West of Santa Catarina (Unoesc), the farmer took the piglet to the institution where experts are now studying the rare deformity.
Enio explained: “The staff from Unoesc asked to study the piglet. We put it on ice and took it there. Now the students will be able to analyse the case.”
Professor Jackson Preuss at the university said the malformation may have been caused by an error in embryonic development. When a partial duplication occurs during early divisions of the embryo.
He added that such conditions can also be linked to genetic factors, environmental influences, toxins, viruses or nutritional deficiencies.
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