Mutant Cow With Two Heads Born In One In 400 Million Chance

Warning: This article contains images of a deceased animal that some readers may find distressing.

Farmers in Kentucky were left puzzled after a 'mutant' cow was born with two heads, an incredibly rare condition. It's common knowledge that some abnormalities can happen during fetal development, but it’s not every day that something truly shocking occurs during the birth of an animal.

However, one family in the U.S. was left stunned when a rare event happened on their farm. A cow was born with a condition called polycephaly, which means it had multiple heads. Sadly, like many other animals born with this genetic mutation, the calf was pronounced dead shortly after its birth.

The word polycephaly comes from the Greek "poly" meaning "many" and "kephalē" meaning "head." Animals with this rare condition have more than one head.

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Dr. Alaina Macdonald explained to the Huron County Museum that "anything that disrupts that delicate timing of gene expression (including random chance) can cause abnormalities in embryonic development."

In other words, polycephaly isn’t inherited but is simply a random event during the developmental process. According to Dr. Macdonald, "polycephalic animals often don't live long enough to reproduce."

The calf, born into the Tarter family in Edmonson County, Kentucky, had four eyes, four ears, two mouths, and two noses. It was a shocking sight, especially considering that the chances of this happening are about one in 400 million, according to Cassie Tarter, a 20-year-old agricultural student.

Cassie shared more details: "He had two heads, four ears, four eyes, two noses, two mouths, and two tongues. He was very short-backed, and his spine was inverted into his chest cavity. His back legs were deformed, and he had a very short tail."

The calf was born with two heads Pen News

Cassie admitted that seeing the calf with two heads 'shocked' her. Still, she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with such a condition, sharing, "We had a pig like this years ago, but I wasn't born at the time."

Animals with polycephaly usually face several health challenges due to their physical abnormalities. Although the calf was born alive, it didn’t survive for long.

In addition to having a curved spine, the calf had a cleft palate in one of its mouths, an underdeveloped rectum, and a condition known as arthrogryposis, which affects the joints of the legs.

Cassie later explained, "I had to bring the calf to my class at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. We learned that there are two possible causes for this: one involves errors in DNA and RNA replication, and the other is when twins stop growing and begin to be 'absorbed' by one another. During an autopsy in my physiology and reproduction class, we found that the organs were perfectly suited for just one calf, so it wasn’t a twin that stopped developing."

Sadly, the calf was pronounced dead shortly after being born Pen News

While the calf didn’t survive, the mother cow is reportedly doing well. Despite the calf’s death, Cassie found a silver lining in the situation.

She reflected, "It was a bit of both because we did end up turning it into a learning experience. So I got that out of it, and so did everybody else."