Histomorphological study of intestine in wood pigeon (Columba palumbus( L.1758))

Abstract

Background: Review of the Iraqi literatures reviled that there are several works have been done on the gastrointestinal tract of Iraqi birds, but we didn’t find research work include details information related with the gastrointestinal tract of common wood pigeon from Iraqi environment
 Aim: The current study aimed to investigate the anatomy and histology of intestine in wood pigeon (Columba palumbus). 
 Materials and methods: Animals were collected from Al-Najaf desert, methods of Humason and Bancroft and Stevens were employed for the histological study.
 Results: Anatomical results reviled that the intestine of common wood pigeon divided into several parts represented by duodenum, ileum, and rectum. Histologically the wall of all parts of intestine in common wood pigeon as in all other birds possessed four layers (mucosa, sub-mucosa, muscularis externa, and serosa). The structural differences of duodenum were in the villi which were represented by long extensions from the epithelium of the mucosa. Results showed that the ileum in common wood pigeon showed that villi of ileum were shorter than those of duodenum, and appeared as a leaf-like shape. Large intestine in wood pigeon represented by rectum which exhibit different features in the mucosa, as the villi of rectum are flat and wide (leaf-like shape),and the lumen of rectum was wider than that of small intestine.
 Conclusion: the present study reviled some differences in the mucosa of rectum as the villi appeared flat leaf-like shape and the lumen was wider than that of small intestine. The mucosal epithelium represented by simple columnar epithelium, with numerous goblet cells scattered in the epithelium