Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
S Jayachitra, K Balasundaram, S Sivagnanam, S Jayachandran and A Arulmozhi

Abstract:
This study was executed to elucidate the gross morphological and age-related changes of thymus from day-old to ten months of age on monthly intervals from broad breasted bronze variety of turkeys. The thymus gland was made up of long chains of 6-8 lobes extended from cervical region to anterior part of thoracic cavity. It appeared as a creamish white coloured and the shape of the lobes was varied from irregular, elongated and oval to flattened structure. Age related morphological changes were apparently observed in the thymus of turkeys throughout the study in both the sexes. The involution was begun at the proximal cervical part which showed smaller sized thin lobes embedded within subdermal adipose tissue and it started to come down towards the distal cervical part with age advancement. The thoracic thymus was noticed as small irregular structure at ten months in hen and eleven months in tom turkeys. The weight of the thymus was gradually increased from day-old and reached its highest total weight of 5.84±0.02gm in hen and 7.70±0.02gm in tom turkeys at six months. Afterwards it gradually decreased and completely absent at the age of eleven months in hen and twelve months in tom turkeys.