This mutant calf has two bodies, eight legs and one head after it was born on an Argentine farm.
The bizarre birth took place last week in the city of Sastre, in the northern Argentina province of Santa Fe.
The owner of the animal, Anselmo Magnoli, told local media he had “never seen anything like this” in more than 80 years working in the field.
The vet who attended the cow which gave birth to the rare calf, Andres Calcaterra, also expressed his surprise at the unusual calf telling local newspaper InfoSastre: “When I started to check the animal, I noticed that there were four legs at its rear.
“I thought there were two foetuses coming from the back and when I wanted to get out one of them the four legs were coming too, so I decided to do a caesarean as they were already dead and due to the size they were not going to go out of the cow.
“It was one animal with one head, two bodies joined to the torso of the animal and eight legs. These kinds of births with malformations are done in 0.05 percent of cases, according to what I have seen in five years working as a vet.”
In the photos, the calves eight legs can be seen on the dead black calf and Calcaterra added: “They are congenital malformations that are done in the early phase of gestation, in the 45 first days. There is a factor influencing the embryo, which could be genetic, external or even caloric stress.”
According to the vet, the six-year-old cow which gave birth was on its third calving, and appeared tired after making an effort for hours to give birth.
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Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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