الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 119 |  |  |
| | | from | 119 | | |
Abstract
The present study was carriedout on 45 cloacal specimens (24 freely excised and 21 still in situ) of mature, immature male and immature female ostriches (Struthio camelus). The cloacal specimens which still kept in situ were perfused with freshly prepared red gum milk through the abdominal aorta and they were utilized for the descriptive topographical anatomy of the cloaca and its arterial blood supply. Representative samples from different cloacal regions from the excised specimens were prepared and processed for the histological studies. The present study revealed that, the cavity of the cloaca is delimited cranially from the colonic pouch of the terminal colon by a strong colocoprodeal fold and is delimited by the coprourodeal and uroproctodeal folds into coprodeum, urodeum and proctodeum.The lamina epithelialis of the coprodeum is builtup of simple columnar epithelium permiated with numerous PASAb positively reacted goblet mucous secreting cells. The lamina epithelialis of the urodeum and proctodeum are builtup of nonkeratinized stratified squamous epithelium. The floor of the proctodeum persist 78 cellulae ?Tonsillike structures? in male at both sides of the phallic base and 45 cellulae in female at both sides of the clitoris. The phallus of the ostrich is formed of a paired phallic bodies, phallic sulcus, elastic vascular body and phallic muscles.The uroproctodeal segment revealed bilaterally located paracloacal vascular bodies. The cloaca of ostrich had two sets of cloacal muscles; extrinsic and intrinsic muscles. The arterial blood supply of the cloaca and its associated cloacal muscles are originated mainly from the internal pudendal artery and inpart from the caudal mesentric and external pudendal arteries.