THE PICTURE of a four-legged chicken at the Midlands State University (MSU) has gone viral on social networks after it was posted on the university’s official Facebook page.
LUYANDUHLOBO MAKWATI OWN CORRESPONDENT
The chicken that has two normal legs and all features of a chicken has an extra two legs that sprout under its wings.
The chicken is housed in one of the institution’s fowl runs at the Faculty of Natural Resources Management and Agriculture.
University officials would not comment about the chicken asking that all questions be put in writing.
However, Martin Sibanda, a veterinary specialist in Bulawayo said there was nothing sinister about a chicken with four legs since genetics function outside the scope of human beings.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong,” Sibanda said. “The only problem that people can note is that this was not a common phenomenon and people would tend to generate wrong information about the chicken,” he said.
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He said the disease was not common in chickens and normally affected bigger animals such as cows and goats.
“The chicken had a developmental function during its early stages of fertilisation and as a result the cells that specialised with legs might have malfunctioned during the relevant stage leading to the chicken having four legs,” he said.
Sibanda also said such deformities exist and people should understand that they even occur in human beings.
