Abubakar Danmaigoro

Morphological Studies on Epididymis and Vas Deferens of One - Humped Camel Bull ( Camelus dromedaries ), Uda Ram and Red Sokoto Buck

This study was aimed at comparing morphology of the epididymis and vas deferens of One - humped Camel bull (OCB), Uda ram (UR) and Red Sokoto buck (RSB). Fifteen testes and vas deferens were collected, organs grossly examined, measured for weight or length and processed for histology. In OCB, epididymal tail was the largest of the three segments while a reverse of that was obtained in UR and RSB In OCB, the vas deferens was found to be coiled all through while in both UR and RSB, it was found to be highly coiled initially but became straightened as it coursed down to form ampulla. Gross morphometrically, the weight and length of epididymis and vas deferens in the three species differed significantly (P <0.05) from one another. Histomorphologically, in the corpus epididymis, stereocilia were prominently observed in UR followed by RSB and least in OCB. The proximal segment of vas deferens in the three species was found to consist of three histological layers; tunica mucosa from which, many folds extended, tunica muscularis and tunica serosa. Histomorphometrically, all measured parameters in both corpus epididymis and proximal segment of vas deferens in the three species differed significantly from one another. It was concluded that although results show that the studied animals are different ruminant species they exhibits some similarities and interesting morphological differences in epididymis and vas deferens compared to the majority of mammals. The basic morphological characterizations done in this study are important for future studies, such as comparison with other species of ruminants (whether true or pseudo).