Abstract
The present study describes the micromorphology of the small intestine and caeca of wild and captive willow grouse. The micromorphology of the small intestine was similar in wild and captive birds, while typical differences were apparent in the caeca, Wild grouse had ciliated epithelium without goblet cells in the neck part of the caeca, captive birds had strongly atrophied cilia and a high number of goblet cells. The epithelium of the body part of caeca of wild birds lodged a great number of spiral-shaped microorganisms and amoebae, which were absent in captive birds. Both the caecal villi and the longitudinal folds were much larger in wild than captive grouse. In the captive grouse the caecal lamina propria was heavily infiltrated with mono-nucleated cells and very often also with polymorphonucleated heterophilic leucocytes.
Since only first generation captives were used in this study, the differences in gut morphology of captive and wild grouse must be due to different food and environmental conditions and not to genetic selection.
Keywords: micromorphology, gut, willow grouse
Sammendrag
Denne undersøkelsen beskriver de mikromorfologiske forholdene i tynntarmen og blindtarmen hos vill lirype og hos lirype holdt i fangenskap.
De mikromorfologiske forholdene i tynntarmen var svært like hos de ville lirypene og hos de som var holdt i fangenskap mens det i blindtarmene var typiske forskjeller. Epitelet i halsdelen av blindtarmene hos de ville rypene besto utelukkende av sylindriske, ciliekledte epitelceller. Hos rypene i fangenskap var disse ciliene sterkt atrofierte,, og epitelet inneholdt dessuten begerceller. I hoveddelen av blindtarmen hos de ville rypene ble det påvist store mengder spirocheter og amøber i tett kontakt med epitelet. Disse mikroorganismene fantes ikke hos rypene i fangenskap. Det ble videre registrert at både villi og de langsgående foldene i blindtarmens hoveddel var mye større hos de ville enn hos rypene i fangenskap.
Hos rypene i fangenskap var lamina propria i blindtarmene sterkt infiltrert av mononukleære celler og som regel også av en del poly-morfkjernede, heterofile leukocyter.
Siden gruppen av ryper i fangenskap var første generasjon under slike forhold må forskjellene i tarm-morfologi skyldes forskjell i ernæring og miljømessig bakgrunn hos de to gruppene.
Full Text
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Footnotes
The project was financially supported by the Agricultural Research Council of Norway.
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