Anatomical comparative study of the digestive tube of various orders of birds

Abstract

The avifauna present in the urban environment has attracted the interest of many researchers among the more than 1800 species found in Brazil, many are being created as pets or kept in captivity, whether in zoos or farms conservationists. The digestive system is responsible for the maintenance of life, and the digestive tract of each bird adapted to process and use as efficiently as possible the food available in their habitat. In order to increase their knowledge regarding the anatomical digestive tract of birds, we dealt with in a comparative study, six specimens of birds, representing five different orders, donated by IBAMA, Uberlandia/MG Were send to the Laboratory Teaching and Research in Wildlife (LAPAS) UFUwhere the animals were photographed, identified as to the order, genus, species and dissected for the purpose of obtaining information on topography, shape and dimensions of the segments of the digestive tract in different orders . At the end of the study were observed some differences in the topography, size and composition of the digestive tract, between the orders and even between species of the same order. It was found that the stomach muscles and much more developed in the Anseriforms order and the jejonunoilico intestinal segment was the longest of the studied birds.