Morphometric Analysis of Developmental Alterations in the Small Intestine of Goose
Ligia Hiżewska,
Cezary Osiak-Wicha,
Ewa Tomaszewska,
Siemowit Muszyński,
Piotr Dobrowolski,
Krzysztof Andres,
Tomasz Schwarz,
Marcin B. Arciszewski
Affiliations
Ligia Hiżewska
Department of Animal Anatomy and Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 12, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Cezary Osiak-Wicha
Department of Animal Anatomy and Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 12, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Ewa Tomaszewska
Department of Animal Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 12, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Siemowit Muszyński
Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Environmental Biology, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 13, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Piotr Dobrowolski
Department of Functional Anatomy and Cytobiology, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Akademicka St. 19, 20-033 Lublin, Poland
Krzysztof Andres
Department of Animal Reproduction, Anatomy and Genomics, University of Agriculture in Cracow, Mickiewicza Alley 24/28, 30-059 Cracow, Poland
Tomasz Schwarz
Department of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Ethology, Faculty of Animal Sciences, University of Agriculture in Cracow, Mickiewicza Alley 24/28, 30-059 Cracow, Poland
Marcin B. Arciszewski
Department of Animal Anatomy and Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Akademicka 12, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
In this study, a morphometric analysis of morphological changes in the layers of the small intestine (duodenum and jejunum) and liver occurring during the hatching period (week 0) and postnatal development (weeks 1, 3, 6, and 8) was performed in geese. For this purpose, the staining of samples obtained from tissues collected from geese after culling was carried out. Staining was performed using the Goldner method to visualize all layers of the intestine for morphometric measurements. Our analysis focused mainly on traits such as the thickness of the mucosal, submucosal, and muscular layers, as well as traits related to intestinal absorption, such as the height and width of intestinal villi and crypts. Additionally, we also took into account the number of mononuclear and binucleate hepatocytes and other cells present in the liver. After analyzing the results, an increase in most traits was found during the development of the animals, with slight differences between the sections of the duodenum and jejunum. An interesting phenomenon was also noticed—the greatest increase in most traits was observed between the 3rd and 6th week of life, which coincides with the time of feed change. We hope that our work will highlight how important the digestive system is for birds because research on this topic is limited.
