Abstract:

Thirty clinically healthy Stara Zagora white turkeys (15 females and 15 males) were used for the study. Eighteen tissue samples (six from the middle of each segment of the small intestine) of the appropriate age group were used to prepare permanent histological specimens. The histological sections were stained by Masson - Goldner method. The small intestine of the Stara Zagora white turkey was composed of four tissue layers: tunica mucosa, tunica submucosa, tunica muscularis and tunica serosa. Tunica mucosa had lamina epithelialis, lamina propria and lamina muscularis mucosae. The layers of the mucosa formed well-defined intestinal villi - villi intestinales. Lamina epithelialis was composed of highly differentiated simple columnar epithelium. Tunica mucosa in the three segments of the small intestine had clearly distinct tubular glands - gll. Intestinales. The histometric results showed that the growth of the mucosal structures and the mucosa was more intense in the first twenty-eight days, compared to the growth of the other layers of the intestinal wall. The most intense was the increase in the height and area of the intestinal villi. The height of the intestinal villi varied most markedly during the first twenty-eight days of the duodenal examination, while the area of the villi increased most in the jejunum, followed by the ileum and duodenum. The height of the intestinal epithelium increased most intensively 2.3 times in the jejunum mucosa. The thickness of the jejunal mucosa increased the most during this period, compared to the mucosa of the duodenum ileum.

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