Anatomical and Histological Study of the Lungs in Adult Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

The respiratory tract is a very important and critical system in all animals including avian. Anatomical adaptations of lungs and respiratory ducts have been occurred in birds due to high request to oxygen exchange. This study was carried out on 16 healthy adult male and female Japanese quails (150±4.35 g body weight). Simple anatomic autopsies were made following euthanasia and weight, length, width and thickness of lungs were measured. Lungs were dissected out, fixed in 10% formalin for 72 hours, sectioned by a microtome and stained with hematoxylin and eosin for histomorphometric assessments. Anatomical findings revealed that both the right and left lungs start from the inter-costal space of 1 and 2 and extend to the caudal end of the sixth rib. Moreover, mean values and standard errors of weights, lengths, widths and deep furrows numbers of lungs were 0.887±0.026 g, 2.325±0.068cm, 1.315±0.038 cm and 5.00±0.147, respectively. It was also found that primary, secondary and tertiary bronchi are lined by ciliated, pseudo stratified columnar, simple cuboidal and simple squamous to cuboidal epithelia, respectively.