A chick baffled villagers when it emerged from its egg with an extra pair of legs.

Prawit Wangcherdklang, 54, discovered the mutant fowl at his farm where he raised livestock and fighting cocks in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, on January 1.

Footage shows the chick stumbling on its additional legs as it tries to forage around the farm. Despite the handicap, it appeared healthy like its siblings.

Prawit said the four-legged baby creature was born to a hen he had bought from Samut Prakan province.

He said: 'The hen's eggs all hatched on January 1. At first, I did not notice that the chick had extra legs. I only saw them when they were caught in a net. It's the first time I've seen such a thing in my 40 years of raising chickens.'

The farmer claimed the chick had helped him win the lottery. He added that he planned to keep it as a good luck charm.

The chick is believed to have polymelia - a genetic defect in which the affected individual or animal grows an extra limb, which is often shrunken, deformed, and non-functional.

The abnormality is believed to be caused by improper cell division during conception.