HISTOMORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF THYMUS GLAND IN THE IRAQI PIN–TAILED SANDGROUSE BIRD "Pterocles alchata caudarus"

Abstract

Although avian thymus gland has been studied in several types of birds, but regarding Iraqi Alchata "Pterocles alchata caudarus", it is yet not to be done. Thus, the present study has been approved to recognize the histomorphological architecture of it. For this purpose six healthy local Alchata birds of both sexes and different ages were used and divided into two groups anatomical and histological, birds were sacrificed by slaughter with legitimate way. Morphologically thymus gland situated on both sides along the neck, it was a paired gland contain two chains of lobes each of them composed of multi lobes have irregular or flattened shape and pallid-yellowish to pinkish color; while the histological study shows that the thymus gland of alchata was totally covered with a capsule of connective tissue extend from it a number of septa split the gland into several lobules that are partially separated from one another, each of them consist of two areas, inner medulla and outer cortex. Cortex observed dark in color due to its high content of small lymphocytes that was tightly packed in the cortex than the medulla, which was composed of large amount of reticuloepithelial cells of central nuclei and acidophilic cytoplasm with large number lymphocytes of acidophilic cytoplasm, thus, the medulla appear paler.