Vet on Call: Understanding birth deformities in livestock

John had his healthy Ayrshire cow inseminated with high quality semen and he awaited a bubbly calf for nine months.

He fed the mother on high quality grass and concentrate to ensure the cow continued milking well for the first six months of pregnancy.

The feeding would also ensure the cow completed pregnancy and prepared for high milk yields in the last two months of pregnancy.

The farmer had done well and utilised all the advice he had sought from me regarding feeding, milking and breeding cows.

Unfortunately when I received his e-mail two weeks ago, the opening remarks immediately depicted a distraught farmer.

“My cow has produced a calf with a swollen head,” the text started. He further said the cow was the one that had earlier been bitten by a dog before she got pregnant.

“Could the bite have caused the development of this unusually-headed calf?” he asked. John had attached photos of the mysterious calf in his e-mail.

“Another factory fault,” I mentally noted. I empathised with John for the long wait that yielded a calf that may not survive to adulthood. In any case, even if the calf had no other deformities, it could not be bred. In breeding practices, animals born with deformities should not be allowed to reproduce to prevent the spread of undesirable characteristics.

I requested John to call me for an in-depth discussion. But first I deconstructed his thoughts that the deformed calf could have emanated from the dog bite. In my view, that was most likely mere coincidence.

Although John had killed his dog that had bitten the cow, there was no evidence whatsoever that the dog bite could have caused the deformity in the calf.

In science, we are not aware of any agent transmitted by dogs that causes abnormalities in the developing foetus.

John’s case jogged me down memory lane and I mentally recited cases of foetal abnormalities I have encountered.

There was this particular one at the Safari Park area where the owner had found the worker in an unnatural sexual act with the cow.

The worker ran away never to be seen again. The cow gave birth to a calf with a rounded face and human-like lips prompting the owner to castigate me for having assured her a natural human-cow pregnancy was a scientific impossibility.

VARIED CLAIMS

The truth of the matter was that the calf had a developmental abnormality called hydrocephalus or simply “water in the head”.

Hydrocephalus occurs when there is deficiency in the development of the brain fluid drainage system in the head. The result is fluid accumulation that causes the head to round up, the lips get swollen in severe cases and a casual look depicts them as human-like. John’s case was moderate hydrocephalus.

In the Safari Park case, it was just another coincidence that the cow got pregnant on or around the time the sex crime had occurred.

Since the owner was keeping a bull in his herd with poor breeding records, she would not have known when the bull had served the cow.

After discussing with John and revisiting many questions that I have personally responded to farmers, I thought I should share widely the issue of birth deformities in animals.

There have even been many media reports in Kenya with some people claiming the deformed foetuses were partly human.

Far from the claims, foetal developmental abnormalities are recognised scientific aberrations that occur in all species of animals including humans. I call them “biological factory faults”.

You see, the animal body is the most complex machine we can think off. Even the most complicated of man-made machines tends to mimic some aspects of the animal body.

From vehicles to computers, one can identify functionalities that are created with concepts borrowed from the animal body, deliberately or inadvertently. One of my favourite comparisons is the bucket excavator with its long arm-like structure.

Therefore, just like we have faults in man-made machines, we also get faults in biological creations.

The production of a new offspring is a complex process involving genes and chemicals; and their interaction with both the physical and the living environment.

Genes are the control units in the body that determine how our bodies are constructed. On the other hand, body chemicals, especially hormones, help in completing the instructions of the genetic codes.

In addition to the genes and chemicals, both the internal and external environments to which an animal is exposed, have influence on the developing foetus or the egg and the sperm that fuse to give rise to the foetus.

NORMALLY KILLED AT BIRTH

With so many processes and parameters interacting to create a biological being, something is bound to go wrong somehow, somewhere. It is those mishaps that give rise to developmental deformities which are revealed to us as birth defects in new-borns, scientifically known as congenital deformities.

Fortunately, majority of mishaps do not result in visible or obviously detrimental effects. Some of the characteristics we value a lot even in humans like the cheek dimple and the gap in the incisor teeth may have arisen from biological mishaps.

It is when defects cause undesirable effects, particularly in the body and organ structure, that we get very concerned.

Medically, off-springs born with severe body deformities are called monsters and agents that are known to cause monstrosities are called teratogens.

Such agents include chemicals, pressure and infectious agents especially viruses.

Some drugs like albendazole, a very good dewormer for livestock and humans, are known to be teratogenic if given to pregnant animals in the early stages of pregnancy.

It is therefore very important to follow the dosing instructions on medicines especially with caution relating to pregnancy.

A chemical called thalidomide, that was used in 1956 as a mild sedative and sleeping pill to calm pregnant women, resulted in babies with very poorly formed arms that were termed seal limbs.

Animals born with birth defects are normally killed at birth or are too dysfunctional to survive and they die naturally soon after birth.

Some people attribute the deformities to the occult and seek prayers and witchcraft to cleanse themselves and their communities of the bad omen.

KITALE NATURE CONSERVANCY

As a farmer, one must expect that at some point, they may be the unwilling recipients of monster newborns. Should you be the one to receive the unwelcome gift of nature, the best course of action is to report to your veterinary doctor.

The doctor should carry out her inquiry to assist you understand what could have been the cause of the monstrosity.

If monstrosities occur frequently in an area and in large numbers of births they require thorough scientific

investigations because they may point to a cause in the environment that could affect more than one species, including humans.

Such a teratogenic agent could be in the food, soil, water or the air.

Some of the causes of monstrosities are industrial chemicals including useful drugs, environmental pollutants, plant chemicals, infectious agents especially viruses, poor nutrition, genetic defects called mutations and undue physical pressure.

Physical pressure, like happens in a pregnant cow with hernia, causes contraction of tendons and muscles because the foetus is not able to move within the uterus.

I have encountered at least two such cases in my practice.

Fortunately for Kenyans, Kitale Nature Conservancy in Trans Nzoia County is one unique facility that preserves animal monsters from all species and from anywhere in the country.

Visitors are able to see the various deformities seen in animals and the level to which the animals can grow with the aberrations.