透明ブタ、双頭ヤギ、象鼻の仔犬… 南米で多発する奇形動物の原因とは!?=アルゼンチン

2016.05.31

南米・アルゼンチン北部で家畜の奇形が続いている。双頭のヤギ、8本足のブタ、象鼻の仔犬……。ショッキングな写真の数々とともに報告が相次いでいる。

■アルゼンチン北部で報告される先天異常の動物

アルゼンチン北部のパンパ・デ・ロス・グアナコスで養豚業を営むアデレモ・バラデス・バスケッツさんは薄紙のような皮膚の赤ちゃんブタに衝撃を受けたという。あまりにも脆弱なその皮膚は半ば透き通っていて、血管や筋肉、骨格まで丸見えの状態で、残念ながら出産からまもなくして息をひきとったということだ。

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この“透明なブタ”が生まれた場所からほんの数キロ離れた家では、2014年に象のような長い鼻の真っ黒い仔犬が生まれている。映画『ハリー・ポッター』に出てくる妖精キャラクターに似ていることから“ドビー”というニックネームで呼ばれ、ネットに投稿された写真はたちまち多くの人に共有され、地元メディアでも紹介された。

この“ドビー”と同時に生まれた11匹のうち、この姿で生まれたのはドビーだけだったという。オーナーのエデュワードさんは当初、ドビーだけ死産なのかと思ったというが、よく見ると弱々しくも動いているのが確認できたという。そこでエデュワードさんはドビーを母親から引き離して何か飲ませようとしたが、この“象鼻”が障害になってうまく栄養を与えることができなかったということだ。友人もドビーを診てくれたというがその甲斐もなく、残念ながらその後すぐに死んでしまったようである。

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このドビーがきっかけとなり地元でも有名になったエデュワードさんは、近隣の人々から何本かの電話を受け取ったという。何かの悪霊に憑かれているので、ドビーを焼き払うべきであると告げられたというケースでは、単なる迷信にすぎないとしてこの忠告を受け入れなかったエデュワードさんだが、確かにドビーの出現は謎を残したままだ。そんな中、地元メディアでは、この地の農家で多く使われている除草剤による影響を指摘している。

■4本足のヒヨコ、“象ブタ”、双頭のヤギ

エントレ・リオス州のアルデア・サン・ファンでは頭が1つで胴体が2つあるブタが生まれている。頭は1つなのだが、なぜか鼻は2つあり異様さを増している。またその直後に同地域では逆に頭が2つで胴体が1つのウシが誕生している。ちなみに、足は6本あることが確認されている。さらに足が4本のヒヨコも生まれているということだ。

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同じく南米コロンビアのカリブ海地域の都市・リオアチャでは、まるで人間のような顔をした“人面ブタ”が生まれたことが報告され話題になったが、アルゼンチン北部のトゥクマン州では象のような鼻を持ち、目に形態異常がある“象ブタ”(Elephant Piglet)が誕生している。

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農業に従事するユアン・フランシスコ・バスケッツさんは、この異様なブタの赤ちゃんを見つけた時、当然ながらとても驚いたということだ。この“象ブタ”は一緒に生まれた12匹のうちの1匹で、生まれ出てすぐに死んでしまったということだ。まだ報告は続き、同じくトゥクマン州で双頭のヤギが生まれている。足は4本だ。今後もこの地域一帯で奇形の家畜やペットの出現がまだまだ続きそうである。

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■遺伝子組み換え作物用の強力な殺虫剤や除草剤が原因か

前出の“透明なブタ”のオーナー、アデレモ・バラデス・バスケッツさんはこの地には古くから伝わる“アルマムラの伝説”の話をする人々が出てきているという。アルマムラの伝説とは、貞操観念が希薄で近親相姦を重ねる女が罰としてロバにされ、鉄の鎖が足についたまま、奇妙な叫び声をあげながら夜な夜な歩き回っているという話で、一連の奇形動物の誕生はそのたたりではないかと恐れられているというのだ。

バスケッツさんはこのウワサ話を耳にしてはいるものの、やはり農家が使っている殺虫剤や除草剤の影響が大きいのではないかと考えている。「当局に調べてもらいたいですね。地方自治体が調査に乗り出すべきです」とバスケッツさんは英紙「Daily Mail」の記事で語っている。

この地域で主に生産されている農作物は、遺伝子組み換えされた大豆と綿である。もともと殺虫剤や除草剤の耐性微生物の遺伝子が組み込まれている遺伝子組み換え作物の生産には、その農地に強力な殺虫剤や除草剤を大量に使用するわけだが、その中でも特に強力な遺伝子組み換え作物専用の除草剤がこの地域で使われているということだ。EUでは使用が禁止されているこの除草剤を、何を隠そうこのアルゼンチンが世界でもっとも大量に使っているのだ。

地元の小児科医によれば、2008年からこの地域の大豆生産は7倍に膨れ上がっており、それに伴って家畜やペットの奇形が4倍にも増えているということだ。

オランダの養豚業者の報告によれば、費用を抑えるために遺伝子組み換えの大豆のエサを与えたところ、出生時異常が急激に増えたということだ。アルゼンチン環境NGOのディレクターは「アルゼンチンでもほかの地域でも、除草剤が生態系と、動物と人間の健康に影響を及ぼしている証拠はじゅうぶんにあります。(中略)さらに遺伝子組み換え大豆に動物のホルモンと遺伝子の変化を促す決定的な要因があるかもしれません」と語る。この動物たちの奇形の多発が、いつ人間にも及んでくるのかわからないということだろうか。

(文=仲田しんじ)

参考:「Daily Mail」、ほか

参照元 : TOCANA


A goat with two heads, eight-legged pigs and a puppy born with a TRUNK: Shock photos of the mutant beasts with bizarre deformities 'caused by GM pesticides'

・A skinless pig, puppy born with a trunk and two headed calf ・A series of mutated animals have been found in rural northeast Argentina ・Farmers blame harsh chemical Glyphosate for causing the mutations ・Argentina is the world's largest user of the pesticide which faces EU ban

By LISA-MARIA GOERTZ FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:13 GMT, 23 May 2016 | UPDATED: 02:31 GMT, 30 May 2016

They look like something from a horror movie - a black dog with a mini trunk protruding from its nose. The baby yellow chick with not two but four feet, the spider piglet with one head, two bodies and eight legs, the goat with two heads and the baby pig with skin so wafer thin you can see the muscles and blood flowing around its body.
These are just of a few of the mutant animals found living in Argentina and exactly why is something of a mystery.
Pig farmer Ademaro Valadez Vasquez told how the piglet with the paper skin was born, but died just a few hours later. 'When it was alive you could see the blood flowing around its body, and things moving inside its body,' he said.
Scroll down for video

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Mutant: This mutated puppy was nicknamed 'Dobby' after the house elf from the Harry Potter films as it had a trunk where its nose should be. It was one of 11 in the litter and died within a fortnight of being born

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Body double: A piglet with two bodiesand eight legs but just one head was also born in Argentina's north-east Entre Rios region

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Freaky: In a startling case, this mutant goat was born with with two snouts, no eyes, no ears, without a tail and hairless in Las Arrias, Cordoba, Argentina

The piglet with the see through skin was born just a few miles away from the black dog nicknamed 'Dobby' after the house elf from the Harry Potter films.
Pictures of the black freak puppy that has a trunk for a nose went viral in the days after he was born in 2014.
Owner Eduardo Landin said he was shocked when he noticed that one of his new puppies appeared to have a trunk instead of a nose.
Eduardo, 35, said: 'It was kind of similar but also shockingly different to the other puppies, so I realised it was in some way deformed and at first I thought it was dead.
'But then I saw it moving and trying to feed, so I helped it over to the mother and it managed to drink something but it's nose kept getting in the way.'
He said that the deformed puppy was one of a litter of 11 and was the only one that was not normal. He added: 'I was amazed at how quickly word spread and loads of people are coming round to look at the tiny puppy, and take pictures and videos.
'One of the children that came round said it looked like a character from the Harry Potter movie and that's what everyone is calling it in the local media here.
He went on: 'I am worried if there might be something in the air or the soil or water causing this as we only live 15 kilometres (9 miles) away from the village where the last mutant was born that looked like that Potter character. One of the pigs in my litter was normal, but the other was a mutant freak.'' Both the puppy and the piglet were born in or near the village of Pampa de los Guanacos in the Copa area of the Santiago del Estero Province, in northern Argentina.
At the time local media said that the deformation was due to the use of pesticides on farmland in the region although they admitted they had never seen anything similar before.
Eduardo said: 'We have had a few calls from people telling us it's evil and we need to kill it and burn the body. But that's just superstition talking, it is a mutation but it isn't evil.'

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Two-faced: A two-headed calf was born with six legs in Los Conquistadores after five hours of labour. The vet put the mutation down to nearly formed twins that ended up staying together due to a genetic malformation

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Human-like piglet: In a separate case in the city of Riohacha, a city in the in the northern Caribbean Region of Colombia, a piglet was born looking like a human

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Theories: Local media are blaming the deformities on pesticide chemicals sprayed on genetically modified soy beans in the country - while others said the mutations were caused by 'evil spirits'

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Outbreak: Researchers say the high incidence of birth defects in north eastern Argentina correlates with increased use of the pesticide glyphosate - which is used on genetically modified soy bean crops And in nearby Aldea San Juan a pig was born with two bodies, and one head but with two snouts joined together.
In the same week a cow with two heads and six legs was born in the same region and a chick hatched with four legs.
In a separate case in the city of Riohacha, a city in the in the northern Caribbean Region of Colombia, a piglet was born looking like a human.
And in yet another bizarre case a piglet was born with a head shaped like an elephant and deformed eyes and no hair.
Born in the northern Province of Tucuman, it was nicknamed the 'Elephant Piglet' because of its small trunk-like 'nose'.
The farmer Juan Francisco Vazquez was surprised to discovered the bizarre birth on their farm. The piglet was reportedly the fourth to be born in a litter of 12 and died soon afterwards – after it's mother bit it to death.

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Seeing double: In the same week a cow with two heads and six legs was born, in the same region and a chick hatched with four legs

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Deformed: And in another bizarre case, this animal nicknamed 'Elephant Piglet' was born with a head shaped like an elephant and deformed eyes and no hair and a small, trunk-like 'nose'

He said: 'We had a dozen piglets but the fourth born was badly deformed. Its mother bit into it until it died. That shocked me.
'I am not sure if this was because the mother did not recognise it as her, or because her instincts (knowing that it would not survive) made her do it.'
And in a separate case a goat was born with two snouts, no eyes, no ears, without a tail and hairless. And while at first locals blamed superstitious spirits for the mutations, blame has shifted to the widespread use of the harsh chemical glyphosate which is used as a pesticide.
Mr Vasquez, the farmer with the skinless piglet, said: 'Some superstitious people around here say it was down to the legend of Almamula.
'Local legend says that Almamula was a woman with no morals who committed incest with her brother and father. She was turned into a donkey and now walks around at night making a strange noise, with an iron chain attached to her leg.
'But I think its probably chemicals. I want tests done, the local government should investigate.' Argentina is the world's biggest user of the controversial product, which kills all non-genetically modified (GM) crops.
The country supplies GM soya beans that are fed to animals in the UK, and cotton that is used in the manufacture of everything from T-shirts through to tampons.
EU policy makers are considering banning the harmful chemical which is known to cause serious birth defects in both animals and humans.
Around 12 million Argentines live in regions where soya beans are cultivated, surrounded by the fields where glyphosate is sprayed, which are dubbed 'pueblos fumigados' or sprayed villages, says paediatrician, Dr Medardo Avila Vazquez.
He said the numbers of deformations had quadrupled from in nine years to 2008 as cultivation of soya beans in the province increased seven fold.

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Spider pig: The mutated piglet was born with eight trotters as part of a litter which also featured a pig born with two mouths. Both animals died

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Skinless: This pig was born with skin so paper thin the farmer could see the blood flowing through the pig's veins before the defective animal died a few hours after birth

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Siemese: This goat was born with two head in the village of El Malacara, Argentina but died just minutes later



A Danish farmer who changed his pig feed from non-GM soya to the cheaper GM soya pig feed found the number of birth defects suddenly increased.
He had a piglet born with only one large eye, a second with a hole in its skull, and one with a huge 'elephant tongue' and a female piglet with testicles.
Silvana Bujan, Director of Environmentalist NGO Bios Argentina, told MailOnline: 'There is sufficient scientific evidence in Argentina and the rest of the world that proves with absolute certainty the damage the herbicide does to our eco-system and to the health of humans and animals when used intensively in the production of food.
'There is evidence that the change from pasture goods to genetically-modified soya, as well as the traces in the air, water and grasses that they ingest, could well be one of the decisive factors in the hormonal and genetic changes of the animals.'

参照元 : Dailymail