GROSS MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE TONGUE OF BUFFALO (BUBALUS BUBALIS).

The present investigation was carried out on 20 recently died, apparently healthy adult buffalo which were free from any pathological condition of tongue from Municipal Slaughter House, Bikaner. The tongue of buffalo was long and muscular organ. It was consisted of three parts- Apex, body and root. The apex was free and flattened with blunt pointed tip. The body was the longest and largest portion between the apex and root of tongue. It had four surfaces- dorsal, ventral and two laterals. Caudal-dorsal part of the body of the tongue formed an elliptical dorsal prominence known as torus linguae. Rostrally, the torus linguae were limited by a shallow transverse depression called as fossa linguae. The average weight was 0.873 Kg, volume 0.758 litre and length 40.24 cm. The tongue of buffalo occupied between two horizontal rami of mandible, on the floor of oral cavity. Dorsally, the fixed part was attached with the glosso-epiglottic fold and anterior pillars of the soft palate while ventrally; the free part of the tongue was connected to the floor of the mouth cavity by a median mucosal fold called as frenulum linguae. Five types of lingual papillae were observed on the tongue of buffalo. They were filiform, conical, lenticular, fungiform and circumvallate. Their distribution varied in different region of the tongue. The taste buds were present in fungiform and circumvallate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]