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Twinning in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cows: Proportion Carried to Term and Calf Sex Ratios
The purpose of this study was to investigate the proportion of twins carried to term and the sex ratio of twin calves at birth in Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle kept on commercial farms in Devon and Cornwall, England. Ten farms were used in the study. Fifty four cows with twin pregnancies were ident...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5644638/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29061937 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci2030131 |
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author | Cockcroft, Peter D. Sorrell, Emma J. |
author_facet | Cockcroft, Peter D. Sorrell, Emma J. |
author_sort | Cockcroft, Peter D. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The purpose of this study was to investigate the proportion of twins carried to term and the sex ratio of twin calves at birth in Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle kept on commercial farms in Devon and Cornwall, England. Ten farms were used in the study. Fifty four cows with twin pregnancies were identified using trans-rectal ultra-sonographic examination between 30 and 70 days of gestation. The farm records were subsequently used to derive the number of calves born. Farm records of 66 additional sets of twin births with the sex of the calves recorded were also identified. Of the 54 cows diagnosed with twin pregnancies, 16 cows (29.6%) aborted or absorbed both fetuses, 11 cows (20.4%) carried one calf to term and 27 cows (50%) carried both calves to term. In the calf sex analysis of the additional 66 sets of twins: 13♂♂ calves (19.7%), 18 ♀♀ calves (27.3%) and 35 ♂♀ calves (53.0%). There was no statistically significant difference from an expected ratio of 1♂♂:2♂♀:1♀♀ (p = 0.61). This study provides bench marks for the expected abortion/absorption rates following the early ultra-sonographic diagnosis of twin pregnancies in comparable populations and supports earlier observations that the expected sex ratio for twinning approximates to1♂♂:2♂♀:1♀♀. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5644638 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-56446382017-10-18 Twinning in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cows: Proportion Carried to Term and Calf Sex Ratios Cockcroft, Peter D. Sorrell, Emma J. Vet Sci Communication The purpose of this study was to investigate the proportion of twins carried to term and the sex ratio of twin calves at birth in Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle kept on commercial farms in Devon and Cornwall, England. Ten farms were used in the study. Fifty four cows with twin pregnancies were identified using trans-rectal ultra-sonographic examination between 30 and 70 days of gestation. The farm records were subsequently used to derive the number of calves born. Farm records of 66 additional sets of twin births with the sex of the calves recorded were also identified. Of the 54 cows diagnosed with twin pregnancies, 16 cows (29.6%) aborted or absorbed both fetuses, 11 cows (20.4%) carried one calf to term and 27 cows (50%) carried both calves to term. In the calf sex analysis of the additional 66 sets of twins: 13♂♂ calves (19.7%), 18 ♀♀ calves (27.3%) and 35 ♂♀ calves (53.0%). There was no statistically significant difference from an expected ratio of 1♂♂:2♂♀:1♀♀ (p = 0.61). This study provides bench marks for the expected abortion/absorption rates following the early ultra-sonographic diagnosis of twin pregnancies in comparable populations and supports earlier observations that the expected sex ratio for twinning approximates to1♂♂:2♂♀:1♀♀. MDPI 2015-07-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5644638/ /pubmed/29061937 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci2030131 Text en © 2015 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Communication Cockcroft, Peter D. Sorrell, Emma J. Twinning in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cows: Proportion Carried to Term and Calf Sex Ratios |
title | Twinning in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cows: Proportion Carried to Term and Calf Sex Ratios |
title_full | Twinning in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cows: Proportion Carried to Term and Calf Sex Ratios |
title_fullStr | Twinning in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cows: Proportion Carried to Term and Calf Sex Ratios |
title_full_unstemmed | Twinning in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cows: Proportion Carried to Term and Calf Sex Ratios |
title_short | Twinning in Holstein-Friesian Dairy Cows: Proportion Carried to Term and Calf Sex Ratios |
title_sort | twinning in holstein-friesian dairy cows: proportion carried to term and calf sex ratios |
topic | Communication |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5644638/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29061937 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci2030131 |
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