Descriptive Anatomy of Hepatic and Portal Veins with Special Reference to Biliary Duct System in Broiler Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus): A Recent Illustration

ABSTRACT Chickens have a great participation in meat and egg production. The anatomical scientific data of poultry is important to support the recent researches either for illustrations in academic studies or clinically in diagnosis and treatment of some poultry nutritional diseases. The current investigation was performed on twenty broiler chickens of both sexes. The chickens were anaesthetized, slaughtered then the venous system was flushed with a normal saline to anatomically investigate the distribution of hepatic portal veins both intra and extrahepatic, as well as the hepatic venous and biliary duct systems. The fowl had two hepatic portal veins draining the gastrointestinal tract with its associated organs as spleen and pancreas. The left hepatic portal vein was small, restricted to a limited portion of left hepatic lobe and had been constituted by five main venous tributaries draining the proventriculus, gizzard and pylorus, while the right hepatic portal vein was the largest, receiving the proventriculosplenic, gastropancreaticoduodenal and common mesenteric veins then piercing the right hepatic lobe to be distributed in both hepatic segments through right and left divisions. The fowl has two hepatic portal veins differed in size and distribution. A characteristic imaginary trapezoid shape was formed by some tributaries draining the caudoventral part of the gizzard. There are three ileocecal veins; cranial, caudal and the ileocecal tributary of the cranial mesenteric vein. The wall of gall bladder and the common hepatoenteric duct was characterized by the presence of well-defined longitudinal folds or striations.