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Abstract
Twenty five immature and mature ostrich females (struthio camelus) are used for carrying out the present work, to study the anatomy, histological and histochemical characteristics of the immature and the mature pre-Iaying and laying ostrich oviducts.
The left oviduct is predominated at the left side while the right one is rudimentary at the right side of the coelom. The oviduct is formed from five main segments; infundibulum, magnum, isthmus, uterus and vagina. The present study demonstrated a great variation is present in morphology and measurements of oviducts of immature birds, pre- layers and laying hens. The oviduct of mature birds measures about 122-157 cm in length and weighed about 0.9-1.8 kg. The inner surface of oviduct presents mucosal folds, which differ in shape, size and arrangement at the different segments and ages.
The mucosa of immature oviduct is thrown into many low thick longitudinally oriented folds, which increase in height and carry few small secondary ones towards the uterus and vagina. The lining epithelium of the oviduct of immature ostriches consists of ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelium with some areas of simple columnar cells.
The connective tissue of the propria is more fibrocellular. It contains glandular buds lined with cuboidal· cells . These buds firstly appear in the magnum, infundibulum and uterus.