Partial facial duplication (diprosopus) in a goat kid : clinical communication

Abstract

The anatomical and clinical features of a live-born diprosopic goat kid are described. The kid had two faces with two eyes each, two complete oral cavities and nostrils and two ears. Caudal to the neck, the kid grossly appeared normal. Both mouths of the kid showed synchronous suckling motions. Elevated respiratory and heart rates were recorded and the temperature was subnormal. Radiological examination showed a single trunk and vertebral column, normal limbs, two sets of jaws, three orbits, and contrast radiography revealed a single patent oesophagus. There was maxillary and mandibular duplication resulting in two faces. There was a cleft palate. The oropharyngeal regions of each face merged to form a single laryngopharynx and oesophagus. There was a single brain with hypoplasia of the cerebellum. The left and right cerebral hemispheres were fused rostrally, and there was duplication of the optic chiasma and the pituitary gland. The olfactory tract was absent and the superficial origins of most of the cranial nerves were not discernible.

Anatomical exploration of a dicephalous goat kid using sheet plastination (E12)

“…The external morphological appearance of the present case resembles those described for a similar goat kid (Mukaratirwa & Sayi 2006) which had two faces with two eyes each, two complete oral and nasal cavities and two ears only for the two heads, double sets of jaws caudal to the neck. The kid grossly appeared normal with a single patent oesophagus.…”

Bir Kuzuda Nadir Rastlanan Diprosopus, Tetraophthalmus ve Meningoensefalosel Olgusu

“…Our case has some similarities with the case of a diprosopus of a kid in which there were two partially developed faces with the development of two eyes 24 .…”

Dicephalous v. diprosopus sharks: record of a two‐headed embryo of Galeus atlanticus and review of the literature

“…As summarized by these authors, several developmental errors have been suggested as producing diprosopus twins, including duplication of elements derived from the first branchial arch (McLaughlin, ; Maisels, ); split notochord complex (Morton, ; Avery & Hayward, ); sequestration of totipotent cells (Davies et al , ); forking of the notochord; duplications of embryonic structures such as the prosencephalon, the olfactory placodes and the maxillary; mandibular growth centres around the margins of the stomatodeal plate (Barr, ) and duplication of neural crest derivatives (Carles et al , ). Exogenous factors such as hyperthermia, hypoxia, nutritional deficiencies, viral infections, toxins, drugs and chemicals have been proposed as potential inducers of the pathogenetic mechanisms causing diprosopia (Mukaratirwa & Sayi, ). Moreover, genetically encoded morphogenetic disorders have been adduced as possible causes of facial malformations (Mukaratirwa & Sayi, ; Costa et al , ).…”

“…Exogenous factors such as hyperthermia, hypoxia, nutritional deficiencies, viral infections, toxins, drugs and chemicals have been proposed as potential inducers of the pathogenetic mechanisms causing diprosopia (Mukaratirwa & Sayi, ). Moreover, genetically encoded morphogenetic disorders have been adduced as possible causes of facial malformations (Mukaratirwa & Sayi, ; Costa et al , ). Mutation of dlx homeobox genes expressed by neural crest cells (Young et al , ; Depew et al , ; Heude et al , ) might lead to duplication of craniofacial elements (Costa et al , ).…”

“…In sharks, dicephaly has been documented in a limited number of specimens of ovoviviparous and viviparous species belonging to the orders Squaliformes (Bosinceano, ; Lozano Cabo, ) and Carcharhiniformes (Gopalan, ; Goto et al , ; Delpiani et al , ; Galván‐Magaña et al , ; Muñoz‐Osorio et al , ; Wagner et al , ). Diprosopia, which is a much less frequent congenital malformation than dicephalia, has been reported in birds, mammals (Mukaratirwa & Sayi, ) and, recently, in a blue shark Prionace glauca (L. 1758) embryo (Hevia‐Hormazábal et al , ).…”