EJPAU 2008. Działa-Szczepańczyk E. , Wesołowska I. MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ESOPHAGUS AND INTESTINE IN TUFTED DUCKS <I>AYTHYA FULIGULA</I> WINTERING ON THE BALTIC COASTAL AREAS IN NORTH-WESTERN POLAND

Electronic Journal of Polish Agricultural Universities (EJPAU) founded by all Polish Agriculture Universities presents original papers and review articles relevant to all aspects of agricultural sciences. It is target for persons working both in science and industry,regulatory agencies or teaching in agricultural sector. Covered by IFIS Publishing (Food Science and Technology Abstracts), ELSEVIER Science - Food Science and Technology Program, CAS USA (Chemical Abstracts), CABI Publishing UK and ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publisher - full membership). Presented in the Master List of Thomson ISI.

2008
Volume 11
Issue 4

Topic:

Biology

ELECTRONIC
JOURNAL OF
POLISH
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITIES

Działa-Szczepańczyk E. , Wesołowska I. 2008. MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ESOPHAGUS AND INTESTINE IN TUFTED DUCKS AYTHYA FULIGULA WINTERING ON THE BALTIC COASTAL AREAS IN NORTH-WESTERN POLAND, EJPAU 11(4), #35.
Available Online: http://www.ejpau.media.pl/volume11/issue4/abs-35.html

MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ESOPHAGUS AND INTESTINE IN TUFTED DUCKS AYTHYA FULIGULA WINTERING ON THE BALTIC COASTAL AREAS IN NORTH-WESTERN POLAND

Ewa Działa-Szczepańczyk¹, Iga Wesołowska²
¹ Department of Zoology and Apiculture, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Poland
² Department of Zoology, Agricultural University of Szczecin, Poland

ABSTRACT

The investigation object constituted the
esophagus and intestine in 38 specimens of Aythya fuligula – 24
males (18 adult and 6 immature) and 14 females (7 and 7, respectively). The analysis
comprised the length of the following parts of the alimentary canal, ie. esophagus,
small intestine, paired ceca, large intestine, and the entire alimentary canal,
regarding the sex, age, and body size of the birds assessed by the four parameters,
ie. body weight, body length, sternum length, and tarsometatarsal bone length.

Despite of the sexual dimorphism in the body
size of Aythya fuligula, no differences of it were observed in the majority
of the analyzed parameters of the alimentary tract. In the case of esophagus,
however, it was evidently longer in the drakes as compared to the females. The
small intestine in the immature specimens, both males and females was longer
than in the adult ones. Except the cecum length, the remaining parameters of
the digestive tract were not related to the body size parameters in Aythya
fuligula. The analysis of the correlations between the parameters of the
digestive tract indicated a negative statistically significant relation between
the esophagus and small intestine lengths as well as the entire length of the
alimentary canal, and a positive relation between the small intestine length
and the entire length of the alimentary canal.

Key words: Aythya fuligula, esophagus, intestine, morphometrics, morphology.

Ewa Działa-Szczepańczyk
Department of Zoology and Apiculture, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Poland
Doktora Judyma 20, 71-466 Szczecin, Poland
phone: (+48 091)449-67-32
email: Ewa.Dziala-Szczepanczyk@zut.edu.pl

Iga Wesołowska
Department of Zoology, Agricultural University of Szczecin, Poland
Doktora Judyma 20, 71-466 Szczecin, Poland
email: aleksandra.halarewicz@up.wroc.pl

Responses to this article, comments are invited and should be submitted within three months of the publication of the article. If accepted for publication, they will be published in the chapter headed 'Discussions' and hyperlinked to the article.