Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Department of Theriogenology and Production, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
2
Department of Veterinary Surgery and Reproduction, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
3
Department of Veterinary Surgery and Theriogenology, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria.
Abstract
The present studies were carried out on the epididymis collected,in summer season, from twenty-four matured West African Dwarf male goats at the Ipata abattoir, Ilorin, Kwara state, Nigeria. Macroscopically, the results revealed three major regions of the epididymis namely the head, body and tail. The head appeared irregularly oval and flat; the body was long, slender and cylindrical while the tail appeared short and U-shaped. The microscopic examination revealed predominant principal cells, the basal cells, in all regions. The head was characterized by tall columnar epithelium with apical cells;thin long narrow cells and stereocilia, extending into lumen, which was scarcely filled with spermatozoa. The body was characterized by low columnar epithelium with short narrow cells and stereocilia. Its lumen was filled with more spermatozoa than the head region. The tail was formed by cuboidal epithelium with no stereocilia but more densely filled with spermatozoa than the head and body regions. Gross morpho- metric results revealed no significant differences in the mean weight, length of the head, body, tail and total length of the right and left epididymis (p < 0.05). Histo- morphometric result showed that there was a significant reduction in epididymal epithelia height of the tail compared with the head of the right and left epididymis (p < 0.05).
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