Prenatal development of ovine fetus

From 39 gravid ovine genitalia in various stages of gestation, collected fr om a local slaughter house in Srinagar city, 37 and 4 fetuses were obtained from single and twin pregnancies, respectively. The genitalia collected we re divided into four stages of gestation as: Stage-I (30-60 days); Stage-II (61-90 days); Stage-III (91-120 days); and Stage-IV (120 days to term). Various measurements of gravid genitalia, like diameter of pregnant horn, s ize of ovaries, consistency of corpus luteum, volume of fetal fluids, diame ter of largest cotyledon, crown anus length and length of long bones were r ecorded. The largest diameter of pregnant horn averaged 8.1 +/- 1.2, 13.9 /- 0.09, 17.8 +/- 0.04 and 23.2 +/- 0.06 cm at stages-I, II, III and IV, re spectively. The length of ovaries recorded was 1.4 +/- 0.03, 1.7 +/- 0.06, 1.6 +/- 0.06 and 2.0 +/- 0.2 cm at the four stages of gestation, respective ly. The breadth of ovaries varied from 1.0 +/- 0.03, 1.2 +/- 0.03, 1.2 +/- 0.05 and 1.5 +/- 0.02 cm at the four stages of gestation, respectively. The thickness of ovaries at the four stages of gestation were 0.7 +/- 0.02, 0. 8 +/- 0.03, 0.8 +/- 0.03 and 0.9 +/- 0.06 cm, respectively. The volume of f etal fluids at the four stages of gestation recorded was 64 +/- 15, 256 +/- 34, 287 +/- 25 and 502 +/- 29 ml in allantoic fluid and 22 +/-6, 128 +/- 5 0, 304 +/- 22 and 353 +/- 51 ml in amniotic fluid, respectively. The mean c rown anus length observed with advancing stages of gestation was 6.7 +/- 0. 9, 10.1 +/- 1.3, 31.5 +/- 0.09 and 46 +/- 1.2 cm, respectively. The mean ob served length of Radium from Stage-I to Stage-IV were 1.6 +/- 0.6, 2.6 +/- 0.03, 5.5 +/- 0.2 and 8.9 +/- 0.03 cm, respectively, while that of Tibia wa s 2.1 +/- 0.1, 3.4 +/- 0.4, 7.3 +/- 0.3 and 12 +/- 0.3 cm, respectively. (C ) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.