Bilateral cleft lip, jaw, and palate in a female Holstein calf

Abstract

A female Holstein calf with a body weight of 35 kg was born alive after a normal pregnancy period in September 2010 at a commercial dairy farm in Karaj, Iran. At birth, the cleft lip, jaw, and palate were obvious. The cleft was approximately 8.4 cm in length and 7.2 cm in width at the widest part. Pulse rate, respiration rate, and body temperature of the calf were 112/min, 42/min, and 38°C, respectively. Respiration was abdominal and irregular. Necropsy revealed that there was no more congenital abnormality except for the facial defect. Radiologic examination revealed that the cleft extended from the median lip to the rostral part of the palate, which made the dorsal nose and the palate separate. Based on examination of the craniofacial skeletal in detail following maceration, it was revealed that all the facial bones were developed and the defect was just limited to cleft lip, jaw, and palate, which was resulted from failure of closure in facial processes. Accordingly, abnormality was diagnosed as bilateral cleft lip, jaw, and palate.

Simultaneous Occurrence of Hypospadias and Bilateral Cleft Lip and Jaw in a Crossbred Calf: Clinical, Computer Tomographic, and Genomic Characterization

“…Facial clefts, such as congenital lip and jaw (CLJ), can be classified depending on their location into unilateral right or left side, medial or bilateral CLJ [2,9,10], with a variable expression of the phenotype, both in humans [11][12][13][14] and animals [2,10]. An additional criterion is whether they are associated or not with malformations in other organs: syndromic or non-syndromic forms.…”

“…Non-syndromic forms of orofacial defects are classified as cheilopalatoschisis (cleft lip and palate/CLP), only cheiloschisis (cleft lip/CL), or only palatoschisis (cleft palate/CP) [5,14]. They have been reported in cattle [9,10,15], dogs, especially brachycephalic breeds [2], and in horses [16]. Syndromic forms can occur in combination with other developmental disorders such as arthrogryposis [17], anophthalmia, omphalocele, anencephaly, syndactyly, anotia, supernumerary vertebrae, and ribs [2], brachygnathia superior, microcephaly, microphtalmia, and blindness [18].…”

“…In cattle, the frequency of congenital defects is estimated to be 0.25% to 3.6% and can be caused by genetic factors, environmental factors, or genetic-environmental interaction during embryonic development [9,24,25].…”

“…Numerous environmental factors have been reported to be associated with facial abnormalities during embryonic development, such as chemicals, toxic substances, infections, hormonal factors etc. [2,4,9].…”