Investigating Twin Pregnancies in Mono-Ovulatory Species

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Reproduction".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 October 2025 | Viewed by 312

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Animal & Dairy Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Interests: genetics and genomics of livestock; health and reproduction in beef and dairy cattle; genetics of ovulation rate and twinning rate

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Twin pregnancy in mono-ovulatory livestock species presents both challenges and opportunities for livestock production. Depending on the species and production system, twin pregnancy may represent a detrimental situation with costs that likely outweigh the benefits of additional offspring; alternatively, if the benefit is greater than the cost, twin pregnancy may represent a means to achieve greater biological and economic efficiency and a smaller carbon footprint in the production of meat, milk, or fiber.

This Special Issue aims to present research that relates to twin pregnancy, broadly including the examination of mechanisms leading to twin pregnancy in mono-ovulatory species (genetic or non-genetic), assessment of the economic costs or benefits of twin pregnancy, study of factors that limit the application of twin pregnancy in livestock production, and management of twin pregnancy.

Prof. Dr. Brian Kirkpatrick
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • twin
  • ovulation rate
  • fecundity
  • prolificacy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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8 pages, 152 KiB  
Case Report
A Case Report of Commercial Production from High Fecundity Livestock in a Pastoral Environment
by Leo James Cummins
Animals 2025, 15(11), 1583; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15111583 - 29 May 2025
Abstract
In the Australian primary industries, beef cows are recognized as monovular while sheep are less so, and both seem likely to benefit from increased litter sizes. In both species, there have been genetic developments causing increased litter sizes, but these have only had [...] Read more.
In the Australian primary industries, beef cows are recognized as monovular while sheep are less so, and both seem likely to benefit from increased litter sizes. In both species, there have been genetic developments causing increased litter sizes, but these have only had limited commercial application. This report describes the commercial use of the FecB (Booroola) gene in prime lamb ewes to increase lambing percentage from the 111% typical of the local industry to 145% in the flock described. In cattle, the use of the USMARC Twinner selection line genetics raised calf weaning percentage from the 89% typical of the local industry to 115% in the herds described. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Investigating Twin Pregnancies in Mono-Ovulatory Species)
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