VPB 121: Veterinary Physiology - II (2+1)

MOUTH STRUCTURE

• In the fowl ,the lips and cheeks are replaced by the beak - an area of dense and horny skin lying over the mandible. 
• Absence of teeth, but so called egg tooth found on the end of the beak of newly hatched chickens to aid their escape from the egg at the time of hatching which disappears after a day or two.
• The hard palate, forming the roof of the mouth. It has five transverse rows of backwardly pointing, hard, conical papillae.
• Numerous ducts of the salivary glands pierce the hard palate to release their secretions into the mouth cavity.