The chicken is now 10 months old, weighs 2.5 kg, is healthy and no different from its peers except for having 4 legs, making many curious people in Quang Ngai come to see it.

This special chicken belongs to Mr. Huynh Van Thu in Tinh Tho commune, Son Tinh district. Mr. Thu said: “I bought a flock of one-day-old chickens at the end of 2009 at a chicken farm in Binh Dinh to raise. About 20 days old, while I was administering disease-preventing vaccines to the chickens, I discovered this strange four-legged one.”

Four-legged rooster in Mr. Thu’s garden in Quang Ngai. Photo: Tri Tin

Asking his grandchild to take him to see, Mr. Tran Nen in Binh Hiep commune, Binh Son district, said in surprise: “I’m over 70 years old now, this is the first time I’ve seen a chicken with four legs like this, it’s really cool.” so strange”.

According to the owner, from a young age the chicken walked around looking for food on two pairs of legs. But as they grow older, their hind legs shrink and hang backwards, leaving walking to their front legs. “Many people paid for the chicken at first a few million dong, now it’s up to twenty million dong, but I don’t sell it because I think this is my chance to get it, so it’s for fun ,” Mr. Thu said.

Associate Professor Nguyen Khac Tich, a genetics expert who once taught at the University of Agriculture 1, Hanoi, said that although the phenomenon of four-legged chickens is rare, it is not very rare. In China, there have been records of chickens with 2 heads, 3 legs, or chickens with 6 fingers. Even in Vietnam, there used to be four-legged chickens in the mountainous areas of Nghe An, Ba Thuoc region (Thanh Hoa).

Dr. Tich said, this phenomenon is not entirely due to genetics, but is a mutation, often appearing in mountainous areas, with sudden hot and cold climate changes (like in Tibet), or due to food poisoning. Sudden changes in diet… create mutant or monstrous animals, like human-faced pigs in China, or dogs that are too big, too small, with extra heads and legs…

In general, these mutant animals often have poor mobility, poor metabolism, leading to poor reproduction, and can lead to other defects.