Polymelia in a Broiler Chicken

In broiler chickens, numerous skeletal and limb deformities have been described (3,5,6,7). These have included rickets, osteoperosis, tibial dyschondroplasia, and "kinky back." In the chicken embryo, juxtaposition of both limb and wing bud tissue has resulted in the formation of polymelus monsters (1). Polymelia has been found to occur naturally in both rats (4) and calves (2). This report describes the observation of polymelia in a 7-week-old broiler chicken. A 7-week-old broiler chicken, slaughtered under federal inspection, was observed to be a polymelus monster (Fig. 1). Despite this congenital anomaly, the chicken was a normal size and well fleshed. The supernumerary limbs arose from a stalk of tissue