Descriptive Anatomy of Hepatic and Portal Veins with Special Reference to Biliary Duct System in Broiler Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus): A Recent Illustration

Abstract

Chickens have a great participation in meat and egg production. The anatomical scientific data of poultry is important to support the recent researches either for illustrations in academic studies or clinically in diagnosis and treatment of some poultry nutritional diseases. The current investigation was performed on twenty broiler chickens of both sexes. The chickens were anaesthetized, slaughtered then the venous system was flushed with a normal saline to anatomically investigate the distribution of hepatic portal veins both intra and extrahepatic, as well as the hepatic venous and biliary duct systems. The fowl had two hepatic portal veins draining the gastrointestinal tract with its associated organs as spleen and pancreas. The left hepatic portal vein was small, restricted to a limited portion of left hepatic lobe and had been constituted by five main venous tributaries draining the proventriculus, gizzard and pylorus, while the right hepatic portal vein was the largest, receiving the proventriculosplenic, gastropancreaticoduodenal and common mesenteric veins then piercing the right hepatic lobe to be distributed in both hepatic segments through right and left divisions. The fowl has two hepatic portal veins differed in size and distribution. A characteristic imaginary trapezoid shape was formed by some tributaries draining the caudoventral part of the gizzard. There are three ileocecal veins; cranial, caudal and the ileocecal tributary of the cranial mesenteric vein. The wall of gall bladder and the common hepatoenteric duct was characterized by the presence of well-defined longitudinal folds or striations.

Effect of Age on the Immune and Visceral Organ Weights and Cecal Traits in Modern Broilers

“…On the other hand, our results showed that the liver, which is the largest gland in the endocrine system, increased its absolute weight by 4.59 g in the first 10 days of life ( Figure 1 ). This organ (liver) participates in the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids [ 20 ], thus an increase of the absolute liver weight in apparently healthy young birds has been related to a higher functional activity of the organ, which is essential for the assimilation of nutrients in the early stages [ 19 , 20 ]. Likewise, due to its exocrine and endocrine function [ 20 ], the pancreas increases its absolute weight (0.85 g; Figure 1 ) according to the age of the chickens, with the highest absolute values on days 9 and 10 of life.…”

“…This organ (liver) participates in the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids [ 20 ], thus an increase of the absolute liver weight in apparently healthy young birds has been related to a higher functional activity of the organ, which is essential for the assimilation of nutrients in the early stages [ 19 , 20 ]. Likewise, due to its exocrine and endocrine function [ 20 ], the pancreas increases its absolute weight (0.85 g; Figure 1 ) according to the age of the chickens, with the highest absolute values on days 9 and 10 of life. These results contribute to understanding irregularities in the absolute weight and possible activity of the digestive tract by observing drastic changes, confirming that the first 10 days are the most critical of the bird.…”

Tributaries of the hepatic vein in the ostrich (Struthio camelus)

“…The hepatic carrier system in ostriches (S. camelus) is formed by the union of the right and left hepatic vein, similar to the case in G. gallus (17,18,19) , in ducks (C. moschata) (13,14) , in geese (A. domestica) (13), in domestic pigeons (C. livia domestica) (13,15,26), in egret (B. ibis)( 16) , in duck (Anas anas domesticus) and domestic goose (Anser anser domesticus) (22). However, in geese (A. domestica) and ducks (C. moschata) (23) the hepatic carrier system is formed by two left and one right hepatic carrier veins.…”

“…In the ostrich, the left hepatic vein drains the proventricle through the ventral and left proventriculosplenic veins and part of the gastric ventricle through the gastric veins as in G. gallus (17,18,19) , in the egret (B. ibis) (16) and in domestic pigeons (C. livia domestica) (13,15) . In G. gallus (17,18,19,26) , the left hepatic vein is formed by the ventral and left gastric veins and by the proventricular veins (13) . Conversely, in ducks, the left hepatic vein is formed by one or two left gastric veins that drain blood from the ventral margin of the gastric ventricle, in addition to the pyloric and caudal proventricular veins (19) .…”

“…Liver blood drainage has implications in various fields of study and has been investigated extensively. In birds, the blood liver drainage systems has been described in ducks (Cairina moschata) (13) , geese (Anser domestica) (14) , domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) (15) , egrets (Bubulcus ibis) (16) and Gallus gallus (17,18,19,26) , considering the hepatic system in birds differs from that in mammals. In addition, in birds, the system is anastomous to the renal system (12).…”