Histological Study of Exocrine Portion of Pancreas in Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris)

Due to the importance of the pancreas gland and its important role of the digestion process, as well as the economic importance of guinea fowl (Numida meleagris). The present study was conducted to study the pancreas histologically in guinea fowl. Samples were taken from the pancreas of (15) healthy adult males of guinea fowl after slaughtering them and separating the pancreas from its appendages. All samples were subjected to histological techniques. In the current study, four types of stains were used when conducting the histological study, which are the Masson trichrome stain, Heamatoxylin and eosin stain, Gomori’s stain and Periodic Acid-Schiff stain. This current study discovered that the pancreas of guinea fowl was parenchymal tissue surrounded by a thin connective tissue capsule. The microscopic examination exhibited the parenchyma tissue of the pancreas was composted of an exocrine portion and an endocrine portion. The exocrine portion forms the largest area of pancreas and consisted of acini and ducting system. The secretory acini vary in shapes and size as globoid, oval, elongated and amorphous, while the exocrine ducts system consisted of intercalated, intralobular, interlobular, and the two major pancreatic ducts, the current study detected that the guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) exhibits the identical structure as other bird species.