Macroscopic and Microscopic Anatomy of the Oviduct in the Sexually Mature Rhea (Rhea americana)

Abstract

The morphological characteristics of the oviduct of 12 sexually mature rheas (Rhea americana) were studied. Only the left oviduct is developed as a long tube with a length of 122 +/- 23.1 cm, and is subdivided into infundibulum (15.2 +/- 4.0 cm), magnum (63.3 +/- 9.4 cm), isthmus (5.6 +/- 3.1 cm), uterus (16.0 +/- 4.2 cm) and vagina (11.5 +/- 1.4 cm). The mucous membrane of the oviduct, as a whole, possesses luminal folds covered by ciliated columnar epithelium with secretory cells. The infundibulum part presents a cranial opening with thin and long fimbriae with few tubular glands in caudal tubular portion. In the magnum, the largest portion of the oviduct, the folds are thicker and are filled with tubular glands. The isthmus is short and presents less bulky folds and a few tubular glands. A bag-shaped uterus in the cranial area shows thin folds, and in the caudal region (shell gland) more ramified folds with few tubular glands. The vagina has long luminal folds and a thick muscular tunic; no glands with sperm-storage characteristics have been observed. In conclusion, the oviduct in sexually mature rhea has morphological similarities with the other species of birds already described; however it presents its own characteristics to produce a big egg.

Gross Morphological and Morphometric Studies of Oviduct in Three Genotypes of Nigerian Indigenous Laying Chickens

“…They reported that the oviduct in all birds is attached to the celom by a thin double fold of dorsal and ventral oviductal ligaments. However, the current finding is contrary to the earlier reports of [29] in rhea bird, who divided the oviductal ligaments into three named ligaments according to the fixed region of the oviduct.…”

Immunolocalization of Intermediate Filaments and Laminin in the Oviduct of the Immature and Mature Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

“…The contractility of the tunica muscularis has been studied in the domestic fowl (Crossley et al, 1975) and Japanese quail (Talo and Kekalainen, 1976;Arjamaa and Talo, 1983). In the current study the arrangement of the layers forming the tunica muscularis was in agreement with previous studies on the avian oviduct (Hoffer, 1971;Sharma and Duda, 1989;Parizzi et al, 2008). As observed in the domestic fowl (Madekurozwa, 2013), the tunica muscularis of the Japanese quail was immunopositive for both desmin and SMA.…”

“…The morphology of infundibular glandular grooves and SST in the present study was similar to observations made in the domestic fowl (Burke et al, 1972), duck (Pal, 1977), Japanese quail (Frie et al, 1978), mallard (Sharma and Duda, 1989), rhea (Parizzi et al, 2008) and turkey (Bakst et al, 2010). The sperm storage capacities of both infundibular glandular grooves, as well as SST in the UVJ are well documented (Bobr et al, 1964;Bakst, 1981Bakst, , 1998Bakst, , 2011Bakst et al, 2010).…”

“…Tubular glands in immature quails were sparsely distributed, while glands in mature birds were compacted. Similar observations have been made in the oviductal regions of the immature and mature domestic fowl (Breen and De Bruyn, 1969;Palmiter and Wrenn, 1971), Japanese quail (Hoffer, 1971;Eroschenko, 1979;Pageaux et al, 1986;Berg et al, 2001), ostrich (Madekurozwa, 2002(Madekurozwa, , 2004 and rhea (Parizzi et al, 2008). A study by Yu and Marquardt (1973) has shown that the egg white protein ovalbumin is secreted by magnal tubular glands.…”

Morfologia de órgãos genitais femininos de quelônio semi-aquático Mesoclemmys vanderhaegei

“…Diferente das aves (Parizzi et al 2008, os quelônios (Machado Júnior et al 2006, Chaves et al 2012) apresentam um par de ovários e ovidutos, ficando evidente em fêmeas adultas de M. vanderhaegei que a atividade ovariana é bilateral, devido a presença de pares de ovos nos ovidutos (útero) que correspondem a atividade dos ovários direto e esquerdo.…”