Quadruplet bovine pregnancy

Keywords: quadruplets, bovine, cow, pregnancy, placenta, allantois, allantochorion

Image size: 1000 x 807px

Old images (~1975) of bovine quadruplets at about 35 days of gestation. This was found in a slaughter specimen where the cervix had been traumatized (and was in a state of healing) and multiple corpora lutea were present in both ovaries. Presumably an attempt had been made to super-ovulate this cow and collect embryos earlier in gestation. Therefore it is unlikely that this pregnancy was the result of spontaneous multiple ovulations. Spontaneous triplets occur in about 1 in 10,000 calvings but quadruplets are so rare that their incidence cannot be accurately reported. Reports suggest that they may occur in about one in a half million calvings.

This specimen was interesting from a two of points of view. First, despite fetal overcrowding, the uterus was able to sustain a quadruplet pregnancy to this stage and second, the fact that the chorions of all four pregnancies had fused yet differential staining of each fetus (methylene blue, clear, dark iodine and light iodine) showed that the allantois of each fetus remained separate. This is shown below.

Image size: 1000 x 806px

Hydrops in a cow

Keywords:  hydrops, bovine, cow, IVF, cloning, allantois, amnion

A cow with both hydrops amnion and allantois, showing her enlarged abdomen. It is sometimes stated that hydrops amnion develops slowly and in the presence of an abnormal calf. In the case of hydrops allantois, some maintain that the hydroptic condition develops more rapidly and the calf is usually normal. However there is often overlap between the two conditions with hydrops developing in both fetal placental compartments. Hydrops has become more common in cattle with the advent of in vitro fertilization and cloning.

In Japanese Black cattle it has been shown that hydrops allantois can be associated with a recessive gene coding for hydronephrosis and polyuria; this results is hydrops allantois.

Selected reference:

Sasaki S. et al. 2016. A missense mutation in solute carrier family 12, member 1 (SLC12A1) causes hydrallantois in Japanese Black cattle BMC Genomics 17:724 739