Histomorphometrical study of pancreatic islets in the Tadorna ferruginea (Ruddy Shelduck)

Objectives: The pancreas (meaning all flesh) lies in the upper abdomen behind the stomach. The pancreas is part of the gastrointestinal system that makes and secretes digestive enzymes into the intestine, and also an endocrine organ that makes and secretes hormones into the blood to control energy metabolism and storage throughout the body. The current study is performed for determination of the number of such islets in Tadorna ferruginea (a member of the duck family Anatidae )and their diameters as well.Materials & Methods: The study has been carried out on 7 paired Tadorna ferruginea of both sexes aged between 20 to 25 weeks. Fallowing euthanasiation of birds the whole pancreases were removed immediately, then samples were fixed in a 10% buffered fomalin solution, the incised sections of each pancreas were embedded in paraffin and then were stained by specified H&E and Gomeri. Morphometric studies were carried out on the stained sections using ocular micrometer and light microscope.Results & Conclusion: The islets diameters in Tadorna ferruginea were found between 6.22 to 11.10 microns. The maximum and minimum diameters of the islets were observed in the ventral pancreatic lobe of females and males respectively. The maximum number of islets were noticed in the ventral lobe, whereas the maximum diameters were found in the dorsal one. According to the attained results, in Tadorna ferruginea the number and diameter of pancreatic islets are different, depending on the parts of the gland and sex of the bird, where there is a reversed relation between them.

Keywords:

Pancreas , Tadorna ferruginea , pancreatic Islets , morphometry