Research Article
Rachel Mngu-suur K, Hambolu Jo
Abstract
The epididymis has been regarded as a highly specialized ductal system that forms an integral part of the male reproductive system. In this study, we obtained and studied the epididymis of ten African striped ground squirrels (Xerus erythropus). The animals were obtained from the wild around Zaria and environs between January and May, 2017, and conveyed in constructed cages to the research laboratory of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where they were acclimatized for a period of three weeks, during the period of acclimatization, they were fed with sweet potatoes, cabbage, groundnuts, water-melon and water ad libitum. The animals were euthanized with 30 mg of thiopental sodium given intramuscularly on the quadriceps femoris muscle. An incision was made on the abdominal region extending to the pubic area to locate the testis, on which the epididymis is attached. The epididymis was observed to be highly convoluted at the cranial aspect of each testis as the catput epididymis, the medial aspects of the testis as the corpus epididymis and caudal aspects of the testes as the caudal epididymis. In the African striped ground squirrel, the caudal epididymis had two aspects as the fixed and free portions. Histologically, apart from Haematoxilin and eosin stain the Masson-Trichome and PAS were used to study collagen and glycogen reaction respectively. The epithelium lining the epididymal ducts stained positive for both Masson-Trichome and PAS. In conclusion, this study established that there is histo-morphological variation between the catput, corpus and cauda epididymis. The ducts of the cauda epididymis seemed to be larger than those of both the catput and corpus epididymis. The epithelium was pseudostratified, and changed to tall columnar and low columnar with cilia in the catput, corpus and cauda epididymis respectively.