A total of fifty-two heifers was used in an egg transfer experiment to study methods of inducing twinning in cattle.
Two groups of eleven recipients were made pregnant to determine the effect of either transferring two eggs to a single uterine horn or one egg to each. Seven animals in each group were slaughtered and the remaining four allowed to go to term.
Of the heifers into which two eggs were transferred to a single horn, 73% became pregnant and 45% had twins at slaughter or calving. In a single case, one of the eggs had undergone transuterine migration and developed in the opposite horn to that into which it was transferred. Of the eleven heifers receiving one egg in each uterine horn, 73% had twins and a pregnancy rate of 72% was obtained in this group. A much greater degree of embryonic loss was thus found in the slaughtered group which had received two eggs to a single uterine horn.
The number of cotyledons which developed was much greater in heifers with a bilateral twin pregnancy.
The experiments indicate that the development of twin embryos within a single uterine horn results in competition for nutrients and sometimes the loss of one or both embryos but, with bilateral transfers, a high percentage of normal twins is produced.
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