Further Identical Twin Calf Test To Be Made At Ruakura This Year

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 73, 26 July 1948, Page 3

Further Identical Twin Calf Test To Be Made At Ruakura This Year

Identical twin calves will again be required this season to enable special research work, at the Department of Agriculture’s Animal Research Station at Ruakura to be carried out, says a letter from the Department of Agriculture. Twins are called identical if they have developed from one egg fertilised by one sperm; such have exactly the same inheritance and so must be very similar in most respects. Identical twins are always of the same sex, but in addition they must

be very similar in other respects such as size, head shape, hair whorls, coat colour, body conformation, and pigmentation of mouth, tongue, muzzle, ears and hooves. In examination for recognition of identical twins the calves’ heads should be held together and each of these points examined separately. Hair whorls are usually found on the forehead, poll, back, and often above the eyes, and should generally be of approximately the same shape and in the same position on both calves. The calves should be turned on their backs and their bellies examined, for colour diffeernces not previously noticed. Little attention should be paid to differences in white spotting. The greatest difficulty in experimental work with cows—the fact that they vary in their producing ability—can be overcome if identical twins are split with one member of a set in' each group. This provides the research worker with two groups to cows each with the same inheritance, and he is then certain that any differences in production are certainly due to differences in treatments and not to inherited variations in productive ability.