PHA or Nay?

I have never had a PHA calf so I am not sure about this one.  It is out of a Yellow Repo X Mono Heifer and sired by either Size Matters or Smoking Joe (I bred her to both bulls same day).  Both bulls are listed as PHA free. It was born this morning 5/16/18 but wasn't due until September 15th.  It was rather large (about 40 lbs) for this stage of gestation. 

Not possible to say from the picture.  Calf appears bloated up as a result of autolysis in the uterus prior to expulsion.  Would need a necropsy to attempt a determination of cause and even then,  results are often inconclusive. 

I'm inclined to say... nay.
Diagnostic necropsy - and maternal serology - would be necessary to potentially identify cause of abortion - but without placenta available for testing/examination... the likelihood of definitive diagnosis drops precipitously. 
At that stage of gestation, Neospora would be my top rule-out.

https://afs.ca.uky.edu/dairy/neospora-caninum-abortion-cattle

I don't see how it could be from a genetic prospective.  The heifer has not been tested but both sires used are PHA free.  Since PHA is a recessive gene both parents would have to have the gene for it to be expressed in the progeny.  None-the-less, the calf has a bull dog head and shorter than normal legs, both characteristic of a PHA calf.  The heifer was riding and being ridden like she was in heat when I found her. The calf had just been born but was dead.  Something strange with her hormones.  I'm inclined to get rid of her.

Could it be a new deal or variation? Would freezing an ear be valuable?

Looks like any number of the hundreds of mid-term abortions I've posted over the past 30 years.  Nothing grossly abnormal about it that I can see... other than...it wasn't ready to be born yet.  At that stage of development, they're all kind of 'juicy'...
In this vicinity and at that stage of gestation, I'd bet you a Coke that it's a Neospora abortion, but without a diagnostic workup, that's merely playing the odds.

Freeze back an ear?  Sure... doesn't take up much space in the freezer... and until you start counting 'one', there's no record of or way to define a defect.  Had one show up in my own herd... Angus sire we'd purchased was evidently the 'founder' of the Angus SCN defect... but until I had the third affected calf born, I didn't start freezing back samples... but by the time #9 or 10 had arrived, I had quite a bit of material stored back for the geneticists to work with.