1Part of Ph. D thesis submitted by the first author to, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai-51
2Professor, PGRIAS, TANUVAS, Kattupakkam
3Former Professor, Department of Poultry Science, Madras veterinary College, TANUVAS, Chennai-07
4Professor, Department of Animal Biotechnology, Madras veterinary College, TANUVAS, Chennai-07
5Professor, Department of Animal and Genetics Breeding, Madras veterinary College, TANUVAS, Chennai-07
6Present address: Assistant Professor, Poultry Research station, TANUVAS
Department of Poultry Science, Madras Veterinary College, Veterinary and Animal Sciences Univ., Tamil Nadu, Chennai-07, India
*Corresponding Author: Email: chinnaduraipandian75@gmail.com
Online published on 19 July, 2017.
Nine ostriches aged four to ten years were used for the study of ultrasonography features of the ovarian follicles. Effects of an individual bird, age, months and seasons on ultrasonographic features of ovarian follicles were studied. The large follicles were recognized the most among the different type of follicle (40.40 percent), while the small follicle (32.84 percent) and developing ovum (26.74 percent) were recognized the least. Ultrasonographic features of ovarian follicles of individual ostrich and age groups showed no significant difference and the mean number and size (diameter) of large and small follicles and developing ovum of individual ostrich were 1.29±0.09, 1.05±0.08 and 0.85±0.08; and 5.76±0.32 cm, 3.54±0.23 cm and 1.40±0.12 cm, respectively. However, ultrasonographic features of ovarian follicles differed highly significant (P<0.01) among months and seasons. The highest number of total follicles were observed during winter, followed by summer and southwest monsoon and then gradually decreased towards northeast monsoon seasons indicating that ostriches are predominantly a winter and summer breeding species in the tropical climate of India.
Ultrasonography, ovarian follicles, seasonality, ostriches
