ANATOMICAL ,HISTOLOGICAL AND HISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF THE PROVENTRICULUS OF COMMON MOORHEN (GALLINULA CHLOROPUS)

The present work is designed to anatomical, histological and histochemical studyof the proventriculus of common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus). Thirty adultcommon moorhen which obtained from a commercial market of (Al Basra city) wereused in this study, and the work conducted at veterinary medicine collage –universityof Basra. The anatomical study revealed that the proventriculus of common moorhenwas tubular in shape with average mean of its length and width (20.00±.7906mm),(10.48±.1.53194mm) respectively. The internal surface of the proventriculuswas smooth and raising no papilla. The proventriculus connect with esophaguscranially and with muscular stomach caudally, It lies essentially in the vertical plane.The histological study showed that the proventriculus of common moorhen consist offour tunics (mucosa, submucosa, muscularis externa and serosa).The mucosal layer ofcharacterized by branched longitudinal folds (villi) lined by simple columnarepithelium, the sub mucosal layers manifested by presence of compound tubularglands which was arranged in pyramidal or conical shape (adenomere), whilemuscularis externa consist of two layers longitudinal inner and outer layer wascircular. The tunica serosa composed of loose connective tissue covered bymesothelum. The statistic analysis revealed that the average lengths of villi andadenomere were (74.50 ±14.72mm), ( 107.63±45.81mm) respectively, while theaverage width of villi, tunica sub mucosa, adenomere, muscularis externa and serosawere (8.75±2.36 mm), (143.12±30.37mm), (85.62±54.76mm), (22.12±6.29mm),(2.50±.00mm) respectively. The histochemical study of proventriculus showed thatthe carbohydrate have positive reaction with shiff reagent in the surface epithelium sub mucosal glands, tunica muscularis and serosa. While the glycogen granulesdistributed in the epithelium, around the sub mucosal glands and in tunica muscularis