Microstructure and Hardness of Buffalo's Hoofs

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe the microstructure of hoof capsules of the buffalo. In addition, the study emphasized the morphometric aspects of the horn tubules, the Vickers nanohardness of the dorsal and abaxial walls and sole of the digits of the thoracic and pelvic limbs of the buffalo. The abaxial wall in the thoracic and pelvic digits showed larger diameter of the horn tubules when compared to all dorsal wall and sole. In addition, the abaxial wall of the thoracic digits showed larger diameter of the horn tubules when compared with the pelvic digits. According to the three-dimensional microtomography, the dorsal wall was higher in density compared with the abaxial wall. The latter exhibited an intermediate density, while the sole showed the lowest density. The Vickers nanohardness test showed that there was no difference in hardness and resistance between the experienced regions. However, the elastic modulus was greater on the transversal section of the hoof capsule. In conclusion, the results of the current study show that modern technologies such as microtomography and subsequent imaging can be used to investigate details of the basic morphology in different regions of the buffalo's hoof.

Microstructure of the hoof capsule of pigmented and partial albino buffaloes

“…Thus, indicating that there were no empty spaces or pores in the evaluated samples. This was also observed in other studies that evaluated cattle (Assis, Silva, Lima, Sant'Ana et al, 2017;Queiroz et al, 2021) and buffalo (Assis, Silva, Lima, Gouveia et al, 2017) hoof capsules by MCT. Conversely, Kasapi and Gosline (1997) evaluated the equine hoof wall morphology using circularly polarized light microscopy and found that medullary cavities of the horn tubules were usually devoid of cellular material.…”

“…The samples were collected and prepared according to a previously described methodology (Rabelo et al, 2015). that showed lower and greater X-ray attenuation, respectively (Assis, Silva, Lima, Gouveia et al, 2017). The horn tubules were classified into three diameter ranges to compare the two groups: small diameter (0-25 μm), intermediate diameter (26-100 μm) and largediameter (>100 μm).…”

“…This is because they help in the understanding of biochemical and cellular events involved in the formation of hoof capsules (Sasidharan & Sunilkumar, 2019). Some techniques have helped in the microscopic characterization and mineral quantification of buffalo (Assis, Silva, Lima, Gouveia et al, 2017; Assis, Vulcani et al, 2017) and cattle (Assis, Silva, Lima, Sant'Ana et al, 2017; Queiroz et al, 2021) hoof capsules. These advances occurred through methods routinely used in materials science, which represent new perspectives for scientific research on the morphology of buffaloes and cattle hooves.…”

“…The use of advanced laboratory methods has elucidated some important issues regarding buffaloes' hoof morphology and composition (Assis, Silva, Lima, Gouveia et al, 2017;. However, little is known about albino and partial albino buffaloes hoof.…”

Mineral composition and microstructure of the abaxial hoof wall in dairy heifers after biotin supplementation

“…The regions of lower densities in the hoof horn samples, which corresponded to the marrow of the horn tubules, were selected for calculations of the morphological parameters. Quantitative data were obtained by CTan ® software (Bruker ® , Kontich, Belgium), and the 3D reconstruction was performed using CTvox ® software (Bruker ® , Kontich, Belgium; Assis, Silva, et al., 2017). The marrow of the horn tubules was classified into four diameter ranges (17–51 µm, 51–85 µm, 85–119 µm and 119–153 µm) to compare the effect of biotin supplementation on this variable.…”