Iraqi Journal of Veterinary Sciences

Abstract

The study was done on the skin of native buffalo to detect the value of hair density in different regions of the body. This included cranial back, lateral and medial surfaces of the limbs, abdomen, scrotum and the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the tail. The skin specimens were fixed in alcoholic Bouins solution and processed routinely. The degree of shrinkage was calculated at the end of histological processing. The hair density was calculated from the prepared horizontal sections, stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The hair density ranged between 2.65-4.9 hair follicles/mm² according to the different studied body regions. Using the correction factor for each region, the actual hair density was calculated to be ranged between 1.58-3.2 hair follicles/ mm² in different studied regions. It was found that the hair density in the dorsal surface of the tail, back, lateral surfaces of limbs was more than the hair density in the ventral surface of the tail, abdomen, scrotum and medial surfaces of the limbs. Hair follicles are characterized by variable sizes and their indefinite grouping arrangement, although some doublets or triplets groups were detected in some regions.