Split Embryos

[CKC1586]

My brother just called, said that last night he found a calf by the feeder, she was dead weighed her and she was 41 pounds. Tried to find who was responsible for her, no luck. Today he said that when he got out there that there was another small heifer and he moved them into the barn and was concerned as it didn't look like she was cleaning. Called the vet and the vet said he thinks this is a twin and that explains the other calf, EXCEPT this cow was implanted with an embryo. Calf weighs 71 pounds, these recips aren't due till the 20th. Have you ever heard of an embryo splitting????? :shock:

 

[fourstates]

They're called twins, identical twins.

 

[CKC1586]

Yes, I understand that but I had never heard of an ET having that happen....

 

[bigbull338]

sometimes a single embro will splitt into 2.it doesnt matter if its an embryo or a natural calf.but you dont hear of it to much from embros implanted into donor cows.

 

[fourstates]

The fertilized egg divides many time before the cells "differentiate" (decide to become brain, organs, bones etc) any time during the cells dividing, the egg can split, and you get two genetically identical offspring. In ET, the fertilized egg is deposited in the recipent early in the division stages. The folks that do ET can tell exactly how many cells the fertilized egg reaches before freezing, but it is pretty early in the division process. Unfortunately, one of your twins didn't continue developing.

Technically, you could deposit two fertilized eggs in a recipient, and get a pair of offspring unrelated, or two eggs with the same sire and dam. But, with all the problems associated with cattle twinning I doubt someone would take the chance with expensive embryos.

 

[iowahawkeyes]

Yes, we had that in 95. The thing I find interesting is the weight difference. I would think they would be closer in weight than that.
We did have a set of twins in 2000 that weighed 70 and 90 lbs, they were not identical

 

[iowahawkeyes]

sometimes a single embro will splitt into 2.it doesnt matter if its an embryo or a natural calf.but you dont hear of it to much from embros implanted into donor cows.

Usually don't put the embryos into the donors, just recips. :?:

 

[CKC1586]

Yes, we had that in 95. The thing I find interesting is the weight difference. I would think they would be closer in weight than that.
We did have a set of twins in 2000 that weighed 70 and 90 lbs, they were not identical

That is why my brother was shocked when the vet stated that the dead calf was most likely the twin to the calf with the cow. That is quite a big weight difference in twins. I had not heard of an ET splitting. It's true, you learn something every day!

 

[fourstates]

One of the twins probably stopped developing. Unfortunately, sometimes happens in humans. There is even a cancerous tumor caused by an undeveloped twin growing inside a developed twin.

 

[bigbull338]

sometimes a single embro will splitt into 2.it doesnt matter if its an embryo or a natural calf.but you dont hear of it to much from embros implanted into donor cows.

Usually don't put the embryos into the donors, just recips. :?:

hey old grandpa is entitled to 1 mess up lolol.

 

[CKC1586]

sometimes a single embro will splitt into 2.it doesnt matter if its an embryo or a natural calf.but you dont hear of it to much from embros implanted into donor cows.

Usually don't put the embryos into the donors, just recips. :?:

hey old grandpa is entitled to 1 mess up lolol.

I knew what you meant, I think. ;-)

 

[iowahawkeyes]

sometimes a single embro will splitt into 2.it doesnt matter if its an embryo or a natural calf.but you dont hear of it to much from embros implanted into donor cows.

Usually don't put the embryos into the donors, just recips. :?:

hey old grandpa is entitled to 1 mess up lolol.

OK< I still love ya and my old grandpa too.. :heart: :heart: :heart:

 

[Dusty]

We had that happen in 93, I have 10 embryos and put them in with on April/93 and well in 1994 the very first calves i had were twins from the recipt cow... both females one was a little "red"

Well to make a long story short, AICA was mandatory DNA testing and i tested them and the 4002 calf was an ET calf, 4001 the twin sister had no relation to the natural twin heifer calf....

So we had twins, one from the Embryo and one from the recipt.... Figure that one out... ??

 

[bigbull338]

thats easy she had to of gotten bred by a bull.about the sametime you implanted the egg in her.an you didnt know she had gotten bred.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

thats easy she had to of gotten bred by a bull.about the sametime you implanted the egg in her.an you didnt know she had gotten bred.

I was thinking that this could have been a possibility for CKC1586's brother's cow. My primary reason for this thought was the weight difference.

Katherine

 

[Frankie]

GAR Convergence and GAR Consistence were split embryo calves. One of the stud services, maybe ABS?, sold them for a while.