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Abstract

The present study was carried out on ten adult, apparently healthy domestic pigeons of different ages and sexes. Each bird was exsanguinated; the caudal vena cava was cannulated and flushed with warm normal saline solution (0.9%), then injected with blue colored gum milk latex to study the tributaries of the hepatic portal vein. The origin, the course and the drainage of the right and left hepatic portal veins were studied. The hepatic portal venous system collected venous blood from the abdominal viscera including; glandular and muscular stomachs, liver, pancreas, spleen, small and large intestines. The hepatic portal vein drained from left and right hepatic portal veins. The small left hepatic portal vein drained blood from parts of glandular and muscular stomachs through the ventral proventriculus and the left gastric veins. While the main right hepatic portal vein drained blood from the rest of the gastrointestinal tract and spleen through the proventriculosplenic, the gastropancreatico-duodenal and the common mesenteric veins.