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An isthmus at the caecocolical junction is an anatomical feature of domestic and wild equids

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Abstract

The isthmus at the caecocolical junction in domestic equids is well described. Like another isthmus between the ansa proximalis coli (the colonic fermentation chamber or ‘large colon’) and the colon transversum (the distal or ‘small’ colon), this spot represents not only a potential anatomical feature contributing to particle ingesta retention but also an explicit predilection site for intestinal obstructions. The question whether this anatomical feature also occurs in wild equids is therefore of both physiological and medical interest but has not been addressed so far. In this paper, we report dissections of the large intestine of a domestic pony (Equus caballus f. dom.), a Przewalski horse (Equus przewalski) and a plains zebra (Equus burchelli). The intestinal tract section of all three animals were similar in length; each species displayed the caecocolical isthmus as well as the abrupt narrowing of the intestinal tract between the ‘large’ and the ‘small’ colon. Graphical descriptions of wild equid gastrointestinal anatomy should include these features.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jeanne Peter and Anita Hug for support in graphics design.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Zoo Animals, Exotic Pets and Wildlife, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstr. 260, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Marcus Clauss, Olga Martin Jurado, Anja Tschudin & Jean-Michel Hatt

  2. Institute of Animal Science, Animal Nutrition Group, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Jürgen Hummel & Patrick Steuer

  3. Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Berlin, Germany

    Angela Schwarm

  4. Institute of Animal Physiology, Physiological Chemistry and Animal Nutrition, University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Julia Fritz

Authors
  1. Marcus Clauss
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  2. Jürgen Hummel
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  3. Angela Schwarm
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  4. Patrick Steuer
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  5. Julia Fritz
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  6. Olga Martin Jurado
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  7. Anja Tschudin
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  8. Jean-Michel Hatt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcus Clauss.

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Communicated by W. Lutz

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Clauss, M., Hummel, J., Schwarm, A. et al. An isthmus at the caecocolical junction is an anatomical feature of domestic and wild equids. Eur J Wildl Res 54, 347–351 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-007-0126-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-007-0126-y

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