Gross anatomical and histological Studies on the esophagus of the buffalo during its ontogenetic development

In 14 buffale-fetuses, 2 buffalo-calves and 2 adult buffaloes the esophagus was studied anatomically and in 7 buffalo-fetuses, 1 buffalo-calf and another adult buffalQ b~stologi cally.By this, the development of the early and late prenatal in addition to the early and late postnatal stages were covered.The position of the esophagus is unchanged during all the developmental stages. At the pharyngo-esophagea! junction, it lies dorsal to the larynx, at the cervical part. on the leftof the trachea, at the thoracic part dorsal to the trachea.The length, the diameter and the thickness of the esophageal w8*1 are increasing with increasing age. The length of the esophagus in the adult buffalo is about 96 cm, in the buffalo-calf about 55 cm. The diameter is about 31 ~ in the adult buffalo and about 12 mm in the buffalo calf. The esophagus of the buffalo can be divided into a pharyngo- esophageal junction, a cervical, thoracic and an abdominalportion. The latter one occurs only till the time of parturition. It then disappears successively due to theinereasing development of the rumen of the calf.The cervical part is the longest and narrowest part among all and at the same time it has the thinnest wall. This may be related to the fact that the cervical part is surrounded bymuscles which act on the esophageal wall. The thickest wall