Case Report of a Congenital Defect (Dicephalus) in a Lamb

Dicephalus or duplication of the head is a kind of conjoined twinning by which two animals have been partially separated in the head region. This anomaly has been observed extremely rarely in horse, occasionally in dog and cat and not uncommonly in cattle and sheep. From a four-year-old pregnant ewe a dicephalic malformed male lamb with 2.19 kg weight and crown-rump length of 37 cm was born with caesarian operation. The lamb died shortly after birth and was dissected for gross anatomical or histopathological studies and also the peripheral blood smears was taken for blood cell morphology and parasite infestation. The Lamb had a single body with duplicated heads (Dicephalus) and the two heads were connected by the occipital, temporal and hyoid bones regions. No gross or pathological lesions in different organs of the lamb as well as no hematologic disorder in the peripheral blood smears were observed. In conclusion, study of congenital defects is an important branch of comparative pathology, which is infrequently reported in veterinary practice.