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A 'mutant pig' born with two bodies and eight legs has died just minutes after being born.

Farmer Gao Baiqi, who owns the sow, said the piglet appeared to have been joined to a parasitic twin.

Gao said he had "never ever seen anything like it" after the pig was born with underdeveloped skin and numerous extra limbs.

Gao, who lives in Fe County in Linyi City in China's eastern Shandong Province, spotted the little piglet among the rest of the sow's litter after they were born.

(Image: AsiaWire) (Image: AsiaWire)

He said the animal kicked and struggled, and Gao had planned to hand-rear it before it suddenly stopped breathing.

"Besides having one head, two bodies and eight legs, the piglet appeared normal and had all other organs," Gao said.

"I had prepared milk and wanted to feed it myself, but it died in a few minutes," he added.

(Image: AsiaWire)

Gao has yet to find a scientific explanation for his "mutant piggy", but reports said the birth defect was likely the result of an egg that had not split properly - similar to human conjoined twins.

Gao buried the piglet on his farm - after showing it to curious residents living nearby.

In June a 'freak' piglet with two heads was saved from slaughter by a kind-hearted farmer who decided to keep it as a pet.

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The farm animal was separated from its siblings in the same litter at birth and is now being raised on the side.

Footage from the farm in China shows the pig is able to walk around on its own despite its bizarre conjoined head.

It still appears slightly unstable and wobbles as it tries to orientate itself with its eyes - of which there are two on either side of its two heads.

The third and fourth eyes appear not to have developed properly and would have been somewhere in the middle of the two heads.