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Fetus in fetu in a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina richardi): histopathologic, genetic, and toxicologic analysis
- Source :
- Veterinary pathology. 43(4)
- Publication Year :
- 2006
-
Abstract
- A young harbor seal (Phoca vitulina richardi), stranded on the coast of California, was found to have a 20-cm-diameter cranial cervical mass. Surgical excision revealed the subcutaneous mass to be covered in haired skin with multiple glabrous areas and structures resembling a jaw with tooth buds, eyelids, and a tail. The mass deformed the host pup's skull. Histologic examination revealed a complete vertebra in the tail, teeth in the jaw, and areas resembling tongue and larynx. Class 1 MHC sequences amplified by polymerase chain reaction from the mass and the host twin were identical. The mass was diagnosed as a fetus in fetu, a rare congenital anomaly in which 1 conjoined twin is completely enclosed in the body of the other twin. The host pup died, and no additional defects were found; however, blubber levels of persistent organic pollutants were high. The cause of the congenital anomaly in this pup is uncertain.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Pathology
medicine.medical_specialty
040301 veterinary sciences
Phoca
Polymerase Chain Reaction
0403 veterinary science
03 medical and health sciences
Fatal Outcome
Fetus
Tongue
Fetus in fetu
Blubber
Conjoined twins
medicine
Animals
Twins, Conjoined
General Veterinary
biology
Histocytochemistry
Histocompatibility Antigens Class I
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences
Anatomy
DNA
Twins, Monozygotic
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
Vertebra
Skull
030104 developmental biology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Harbor seal
Environmental Pollutants
Female
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 03009858
- Volume :
- 43
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Veterinary pathology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....35555f5e92411955c37233e06c9963de