Unit 3: external and internal anatomy of poultry

The basic external parts of a chicken include the comb, beak, wattles, ears,
earlobes, eyes, eye rings, wings, tail, thighs, hocks, shanks, spurs, claws and toes.
Both male and female chickens have these basic parts. The differences between
males and females include the size of the comb and wattles, the size of the spurs
(in older birds), and the characteristics of the hackle and cape feathers. Hackle and
cape feathers of males have pointed ends, whereas those of females have rounded
ends. In addition, males have sickle feathers in their tails and hackle feathers on
their backs, and females do not. The external anatomy of poultry is given below:

The thigh of a chicken is the upper part of the leg attached to the body of the bird.
The thigh ends at the lower leg (drumstick). The thigh is connected to the shank
(foot) at the hock joint, which is the equivalent of the ankle in humans. Chickens
stand and walk on their toes. Most chickens have three toes projecting forward and
one projecting back, sometimes referred to as the claw. A few breeds, however,
have five toes on each foot. Some breeds also have feathers on their shanks and
toes. A chicken’s head has several parts, One of the most prominent features on a
chicken’s head is the comb. Figure 8 shows different types of combs. A chicken’s
comb and wattles are red, soft, and warm. Chickens do not have external ears as
humans do. The ears are just openings into the ear canal, and each is protected by a
covering of feathers. The earlobe is a specialized skin located below the ear. The
color of the earlobe depends on the breed of chicken. The two possible colors are
red and white. The eyeball is covered by the eye ring. When the eye is open, the
eye ring appears as a ring of skin around the eye (thus the name eye ring).
The Internal Anatomy of Chicken
 A. The Digestive System:
The digestive system consists of the alimentary canal along which the food passes
after eating to where the residual wastes are eliminated from the body, together
with the liver and the pancreas. The digestive system is responsible for the
ingestion of food, its breakdown into its constituent nutrients and their absorption
into the blood stream, and the elimination of wastes from this process.
The alimentary canal:
The alimentary canal is a long tube-like organ that starts at the beak and ends with
the vent or cloaca in the abdominal region. Generally, the alimentary canal has
layers of muscle and is lined with mucous membranes. The waste remaining is
eliminated from the body via the cloaca or vent.
Mouth structure:
Fowls don’t have lips and cheeks, they instead have a beak which is an area of
dense and horny skin lying over the mandible and incisive bones that serve as the
bony foundation. There are no teeth.
Salivary glands:
A thick layer of stratified squamous epithelium covers the free surface. The
salivary glands run the whole length of the hard palate, the groups of glands
merging to form one mass of glandular tissue under the epithelium. Lymphoid
tissue is found in most glands.
Pharynx and tongue:
The pharynx is continuous with, and follows, the mouth. The combined cavity of
the mouth and the pharynx is often referred to as the oropharynx. The tongue is
long and pointed and conforms to the shape of the beak in which it operates. The
mouth has two major functions:
1. To pick up the food particles.
2. To direct the food into the oesophagus – as part of the bird’s eating behaviour.
Oesophagus and crop:
The oesophagus is wide and is capable of being significantly stretched. It connects
the mouth region to the crop in close association with the trachea. The crop is a
large dilation of the oesophagus located just prior to where the oesophagus enters
the thoracic cavity. The crop provides the capacity to hold food for some time
before further digestion commences. Inside the thoracic cavity, the oesophagus
enters or becomes the proventriculus which is a very glandular part of the digestive
tract (often called the glandular stomach).
Proventriculus:
The glandular stomach, or proventriculus, is relatively small and tubular. The
mucous membrane is raised into folds and between these folds are numerous
simple tubular glands that produce hydrochloric acid as well as lymphoid tissue.
Gizzard:
The muscular stomach or gizzard is located immediately after the proventriculus,
partly between the lobes and partly behind the left lobe of the liver. It has a
flattened, rounded shape somewhat like a convex lens, with one side slightly larger
than the other. Each surface is covered by a glistening layer of tendinous tissue
which is thicker at the centre and becoming thinner towards the edges. The gizzard
almost always contains quantities of hard objects such as gravel or other grit that
aids in the disintegration of food, which is the primary function of the gizzard.
The small intestine:
The small intestine begins at the exit from the gizzard and ends at the junction of
the small intestine, caeca and colon. It is relatively long and has a constant
diameter. Only the duodenum can be easily distinguished in the fowl. There is no
clear demarcation between the jejunum and ileum. Digestion of the food and all of
the absorption of the nutrients takes place in the small intestine and hence its
structure is quite important.
Duodenum:
The duodenum starts at the gizzard and forms an elongated loop that is
approximately 20 centimeters long. The pancreas lies between the arms of the loop
and is attached to, and actually holds together, each arm of the duodenum.
Bile ducts from the gall bladder that are attached to the liver and two to three
pancreatic ducts enter the small intestine by a common papilla at the caudal end
(closest to the rear) of the duodenum. The pancreas is a very important organ in the
process of digesting food and it is attached to each side of the duodenal loop and
lies between the two arms.
Jejunum and the ileum:
The jejunum and the ileum, together about 120 cm long, commence at the caudal
end of the duodenum where the bile and the pancreatic duct papilla are located and
terminate at the ileocaecal-colic junction. This junction is where the small
intestine, the two caeca and the colon all meet.
Large intestine:
The large intestine is very short and does not differ to any extent from the calibre
of the small intestine. It runs in nearly a straight line below the vertebrae and ends
at the cloaca. Sometimes this section is referred to as the colon and the rectum (the
rectum being the terminal section). The bursa of fabricius is located immediately
above the cloaca of young birds but disappears when the birds have reached
approximately one year old.
Caeca:
The two caeca or blind pouches are about 16-18 centimetres long in the adult. They
extend along the line of the small intestine towards the liver and are closely
attached to the small intestine along their length by the mesentery.
Cloaca:
The large intestine terminates in the front part of the cloaca. The cloaca is a tubular
cavity opening to the exterior of the body and is common to the digestive and
urogenital tract.
Liver:
The liver is a bi-lobed organ that lies ventrally (below) and posterior (in rear of) to
the heart and is closely associated with the proventriculus and the spleen. The right
side lobe is larger. The liver is dark brown or chocolate in colour except for the
first 10-14 days when it may be quite pale due to the absorption of lipids (fats)
from the yolk as an embryo.
The gall bladder lies on the right lobe beneath the spleen. Two bile ducts emerge
from the right lobe and one of these originates from the gall bladder and the second
provides a direct connection from the liver to the small intestine.
Pancreas:
This organ has three lobes that occupy the space between the two arms of the
duodenal loop. Two or three ducts pass the secretions of this organ into the distal
end of the duodenum via papillae common with the ducts from the gall bladder and
the liver
B. Respiratory System:
The respiratory system is one of the major systems of the body. It has a number of
very important functions including the provision of oxygen, the removal of carbon
dioxide, the removal of excess heat (thermoregulation) and vocal communication.
Nasal cavity:
The openings to the nasal cavity, the nares, lie at the point of the base of the comb
on the top beak or mandible. The nasal cavity occupies a triangular shaped space
between the nares and the margin of the eye and within the beak. Between the
integument and the nasal cavity lie the lacrimal sinuses that empty into the cavity
through the lateral wall.
Oropharynx (mouth and pharynx):
The oropharynx consists of the mouth and the pharynx that is located immediately
behind it. The palate is part hard and part soft. During gasping while the bird is in a
state of respiratory distress it can open to a width of 7 to 9 mm. There are no vocal
cords, epiglottis and thyroid cartilages that are normally found in mammals.
Trachea:
This organ is a long tube with the function of moving the respiratory gases from
the upper respiratory system to the organs of respiration – the lungs and air sacs or
from the air sacs and lungs to the upper respiratory organs. The trachea in medium
sized adults measures between 15 and 18 centimetres. It is held open permanently
by 108 to 125 cartilaginous rings each one complete and lapping its neighbour.
Bronchi:
The trachea divides at the syrinx into the left and right bronchi which are called the
primary or mesobronchi. It is interesting to note that the combined cross sectional
area of the bronchi is more than double that of the caudal end of the trachea from
which they arise.
Lungs:
The avian lung is a flattened structure that occupies the roof of the cranial or head
end of the coelom. Fowls do not have a diaphragm that separates the peritoneal
from the pericardial/pleural (thoracic) cavities.
The bright pink lungs are formed at the end of the bronchi and their terminal
structures are called the air vesicles or sacs. Unlike other species, the avian lungs
have very little elasticity.
Air sacs and lungs:
Air sacs:
The air sacs are very thin walled extensions of the bronchi that could be likened to
balloons. Some of these sacs also connect to many of the larger long bones to form
the pneumatic bones. This makes the bones lighter and is a distinct advantage in
flight. There are nine air sacs in the domestic fowl.
These are:
a. Single clavicular air sac
b. Pair of cervical air sacs
c. Pair of cranial thoracic air sacs
d. Pair of caudal thoracic air sacs
e. Pair of abdominal air sacs