VPP 322: Aquatic Animal Diseases, Health Care and Management (1+1)

ARTERIAL SYSTEMS

Arterial systems

• The heart pumps blood through bulbs arteriosus to the ventral aorta. The ventral aorta is a straight tube having thick walls. It lies on the mid ventral line of the floor of pharynx. In elasmobranchii and dipnoi, the ventral aorta seems to be tubular extension of the conus arteriosus. The conus arteriosus comprises cardiac muscle; however, ventral aorta is composed of smooth muscle.

Arteries to head and gill

• Only one efferent branchial artery is present in each gills arch of bony fishes. In cartilaginous fishes (elamobranchii), they may be paired i.e., one for each hemibranch of the gill arch, except the anterior hyoid arch, which possess only one branchialis artery. A lungfish (Dipnoi) shows intermediate conditions. The first two efferent branchialis meet dorsally and form the anterior epibranchial artery on each side. The third and fourth efferent branchial vessels also arise from their respective holobranchs and join together to form a short post second epibranchial.

Abdominal arteries

• The trunk receives blood through two main arteries and their branches, which are dorsal aorta and coeliacomesenteric artery.
• Dorsal aorta: Dorsal aorta gives out four branches soon on entering the abdominal region. The branch of dorsal aorta are
  • Subclavian arteries
  • Renal arteries
  • Caudal arteries
  • Parietal arteries
• Coeliacomesenteric artery: This artery takes its origin from the right posterior epibranchial artery and supply the whole digestive tract, liver, air bladder and thin branches. All thin branches are present on the dorsal side except the gonadal and pneumatic arteries, which are ventral to them the branches of coeliacomesentric artery are
  • Oesophageal artery
  • Anterior hepatic artery
  • Gonado- pneumatic artery
  • Spleenic arteries
  • Median hepatic and pancreatic arteries
  • Cystic artery
  • Posterior hepatic artery
  • Mesenteric artery

Coronary arteries

• Median hypobranchial artery and coronary network is present over the ventricle. The median hypobranchial artery sends fine capillaries to the bulbus arteriosus. The origin of hypobranchail artery is still unknown.