Brazilian scientists have rejected claims that the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele 鈥� notorious for his experiments at 鈥� was responsible for creating a tribe of twins in a small town near the border with Argentina.
In his book, Mengele: The Angel Of Death In South America, Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa claims that Mengele made regular trips to Linha S茫o Pedro, a small and predominantly German settlement near the city of C芒ndido God贸i in Brazil, during the 1960s. Shortly afterwards, the birth rate of twins began to spiral, he says.
However, Ursula Matte of the medical genetics unit at Porto Alegre Hospital in Brazil and her colleagues reject any notion that Mengele was responsible for the phenomenon. Her team was invited to Linha S茫o Pedro during 1994 to investigate reports of a higher than average number of twin births in the town.
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Generation hop
From 1990 to 1994, the proportion of twin births in Linha S茫o Pedro was 10%, compared to 1.8% for rest of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
鈥淓ven though we could not find a definitive explanation for this higher incidence, the existence of other 鈥榯win towns鈥� around the world 鈥� most of them in remote isolated areas with high levels of inbreeding just as Linha S茫o Pedro 鈥� shows that external influence is not needed for this to happen,鈥� Matte says.
Her team interviewed and conducted blood tests on 17 of the 22 pairs of twins living in Linha S茫o Pedro, around half of which were identical twins.
Genealogical analysis showed a high recurrence of multiple births within families, as well as a high level of inbreeding within the community, suggesting the presence of genetic twinning factors.
The high level of inbreeding, combined with an absence of twins every other generation would suggest a recessive trait, Matte adds.
Teutonic traits
Although Camarasa argues that the high prevalence of blonde hair and blue eyes among the twins could be evidence of Mengele鈥檚 鈥淎ryanising鈥� influence, Matte points out that the village was founded by German immigrants who often have such features.
鈥淚n addition, I don鈥檛 think Mengele would have the knowledge, not to mention the means, to engender the rise in twin births in this community,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 noteworthy that twin births occurred there in almost every time period, even in the 1990s, so what kind of long-lasting manipulation could he have perpetrated?鈥�
Twin births have been linked to exposure to toxic waste and increased use of IVF, but even now, says Matte, we don鈥檛 fully understand the mechanisms involved, 鈥渁nd it is extremely hard for me to think that Mengele would have known it in the late 1960s,鈥� she says.
Journal reference: Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae (vol 45, p 431)
