Chim chim cheree!

Not being a medical expert frustrates me at times. I am quite interested in genes and forensic science, so if I come across an interesting article or a piece of information, I cannot leave it alone until I get to the bottom of the story. This rarely happens and I end up totally perplexed and wishing that I had the knowledge to go deeper.

As most of you know, last year I was 'gifted' a bull calf. He came from the dairy farm, and as a male was unwanted. They keep no males, as the females are all artificially inseminated. I suppose it is expensive to keep and feed Bulls when a vial of semen (highest quality) costs around $25.00, quite a bargain really! Anyway...through my research I now consider myself quite well-versed on the ins and outs of cattle breeding. One thing I have learned is that when twins are born to a cow is this:

2 males = ok (2 bull calfs)
2 females = ok (2 heifers)
1 male + 1 female = male ok. Female sterile (in 88% of cases). (1 bull calf & 1 free martin)

So rather than give me a bull calf that will grow into a BULL, they could have waited and given me a FreeMartin. Anyway.....it seems that this rule about Free Martins is true to all cattle unlike species who produce litters (like dogs, pigs etc). It is an abnormal sex developement, something to do with blood vessels fusing in the embryos causing a common blood supply.....end result is a female looking cow with some degree of maleness in her.

Next step....I wondered about humans. We are a weird lot (well not me, but maybe you), so I did some research. This led me to reading about Chimeras. This then led me to the forensic side of things. If the UAE courts need a witness to convince them that a child who was born prematurely (i.e. 8 months after marriage) does in fact belong to the father (they refuse DNA evidence)......then some Chimeras in this country could really stir up some big shit.