Anatomy of digestive system of duck

                  Anatomy of digestive system of duck (PARTS)

                                                 

               •Oral cavity (tongue, hard palate)

               •Esophagus and Crop

               •Stomach (proventriculus and ventriculus)

               •Small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, ileum)

               •Large intestine (a pair of caeca, colon)

               •Cloaca (coprodeum)

               •Glands (liver & pancreas)

                                                 Oral Cavity (Anatomy)

                •No lips, No cheeks, No teeth.

                •Jaws covered by beak.

                                                                       TONGUE 

      The fleshy tongue of the duck is a straining organ . Its rostral part has a scoop-like processes  and the lateral margins has a double row of overlapping bristles  which are interspersed  caudally with tooth like processes .

                                                                Esophagus and Crop

          •Esophagus muscular tube –Capable of great distention.
          •The esophagus close to the thoracic inlet forms a relatively indistinct spindle shaped widening which represents the crop
          •In the duck the wall of the terminal part of the thoracic esophagus contains an aggregated  lymphoid nodule which is commonly referred to as the esophageal  tonsil.

                                                            Stomach (Anatomy)                                                                                                                                  2 separate organs

         1. Proventriculus -glandular stomach

         2.Ventriculus (Gizzard) –muscular stomach

               The mucosa of the gizzard is covered by a sturdy layer of protein called koilin , which aids   in food digestion.
               The color may vary from white,to yellow, to green depending on the diet and the degree of   bile staining.

                                                                   Small Intestine  

• The most proximal loop of the small intestine is the duodenal loop which encloses  the  pancreas.It is succeeded by a number of jejunal loops and ileal loops.The jejunal and ileal loops are separated by the axial loop which carries near its apex the Vitelline diverticulum.                                                                      
• The proximal limb  of the axial loop , therefore is formed by the terminal part of the jejunum while the distal limb  is formed by the initial part of the ileum .

                                                                   Large Intestine

•  The large intestine consists of two parts.1.Rectum 2.Two caeca. 
•  The rectum extends from the ileum  cranially to the cloaca  caudally.
•  The right and left caeca arise from the lateral walls of the rectum  close to the junction with the ileum. 
•  The caeca in the duck are extremely well developed and are mostly dark green in colour.
•  Each caecum can be divided externally into a short proximal neck part or base a long thin walled middle part or body  and a short distal part or apex .
•  The enlarged forms of caeca like these play a role in the bacterial fermentation of cellulose and along with rectum are also important in water reabsorption from ureteral urine.
• Surrounding the orifices of the ileum  and the right and left caeca  is thickened circular muscle forming the ileac sphincter  and the right and left caecal sphincters .The musculature of the three sphincters is continuous.

Cloaca

• Tubular with opening on the exterior.
• Common opening for digestive, urinary and genital system.

           Parts of Cloaca

          Coprodeum       cranial part of cloaca into which colon empties.                                

          Urodeum           middle part of cloaca into which ureters and genital ducts open.

        Proctodeum      through which an opening leads from the dorsal wall to the bursa of Fabricius (blind sac-like, un paired , best developed at 4 months of age ).

Spleen

In duck ,the dark red spleen  lies on the right side of the junction between the proventriculus  and gizzard  .Spleen has triangular shape in ducks.

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