freemartin

[shorthorns]

It had been my impression that a freemartin was a term used only for sterile heifers born twin to a bull. Is this idea correct or is freemartin used in contexted with any sterile heifer?
Thanks for any input.

 

[Beefy]

only twins however keep in mind that she could have been a twin and the bull wasnt carried to term, was reabsorbed, etc.

 

[1848]

It had been my impression that a freemartin was a term used only for sterile heifers born twin to a bull. Is this idea correct or is freemartin used in contexted with any sterile heifer?
Thanks for any input.

Here is a quote from an article:

"I am not sure whether the term freemartin only applies to situations where one dizygotic twin is male and the other female. The phenomenon was originally described in this situation, since this was the easiest way to be certain that the twins were not monozygotic, but the immunological phenomena you refer to are observed in both gender disparate and gender identical twins"

...but everything I've seen and heard refers to a free-martin being a twin to a bull. The others are just sterile females...for one reason or another.

 

[Beefy]

It had been my impression that a freemartin was a term used only for sterile heifers born twin to a bull. Is this idea correct or is freemartin used in contexted with any sterile heifer?
Thanks for any input.

Here is a quote from an article:

"I am not sure whether the term freemartin only applies to situations where one dizygotic twin is male and the other female. The phenomenon was originally described in this situation, since this was the easiest way to be certain that the twins were not monozygotic, but the immunological phenomena you refer to are observed in both gender disparate and gender identical twins"

...but everything I've seen and heard refers to a free-martin being a twin to a bull. The others are just sterile females...for one reason or another.

What was the rest of the article about? what magazine? what immunological phenomena was he/she/it referring to?

 

[shorthorns]

Thanks for the information.
Some or all Heifer twins have also been know to be sterile as well?

 

[certherfbeef]

Not all heifers born twin to a bull are sterile. I am running 2 in the herd now that were twin to a bull. Old timers say that if the heifer is born first she will breed. If she is born 2nd she will not.

But, sterile heifers are the norm when born twin to a bull.

 

[shorthorns]

I don't understand why if the heifer is born first she has the potential to breed.

 

[certherfbeef]

I don't understand why if the heifer is born first she has the potential to breed.

Just something that the old timers used to say. Theory is that if the heifer is first one born she all the proper reproductive organs.

 

[1848]

What was the rest of the article about? what magazine? what immunological phenomena was he/she/it referring to?

N.Holmes 1998

http://www-immuno.path.cam.ac.uk/~immun ... AnsHE.html