Histological differences of skin among three body regions in male and female Hokkaido sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis)

Abstract

The Hokkaido sika deer (Cervus Nippon yesoensis), the largest and most abundant of the sika deer subspecies in Japan, has recently attracted new attention as a target for leather production, in addition to its meat value. To provide fundamental data for facilitating the effective use of skin for leather, the histological properties of skin at the shoulder, back and abdominal regions of male and female deer were compared. The results showed that the thickness of the outer skin layer was not significantly different across all regions irrespective of sex. Regarding collagen composition, we found that large-diameter collagen fibrils were heavily distributed in the shoulder of male deer, whereas small-diameter collagen fibrils were largely confined to the abdomen of female deer. We hope this regional histological data will lead to more efficient processing of Hokkaido sika deer skin for leather production.