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Journal of Experimental Biology 52,437-445 (1970)
Published by Company of Biologists 1970

Lipid, Bile Acid, Water and Dry Matter Content of the Intestinal Tract of Domestic Ducks with Reference to the Habitat of Polymorphus Minutus (Acanthocephala)

D. W. T. CROMPTON ¹ and M. C. NESHEIM ²

¹ Department of Poultry Science and Graduate School of Nutrition, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; The Molteno Institute, University of Cambridge
² Department of Poultry Science and Graduate School of Nutrition, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

1. The distributions of total material, water, lipid and bile salts in the intestine of domestic ducks feeding ad libitum have been determined.

2. Most material accumulates in the posterior part of the intestine and the duodenal region appears to be wetter than the rest of the intestine.

3. When ducks feed on a diet with a lipid content of 4% of the dry weight, the highest concentration of lipid detected in the intestine was 5% of the dry weight of the ntestinal material. Lipid appears to be absorbed in the anterior half of the intestine.

4. Bile acids accumulate in the posterior part of the intestine where concentrations as high as 5.18 mg./g. of intestinal contents were detected. The evidence indicates that bile acids are absorbed in the posterior part of the intestine.

6. The bile acids of bile from the gallbladders of ducks have been identified by means of gas-liquid chromatography. Cholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, lithocholic acid and some unidentified substances were found to form 16, 59, 17 and 8%, respectively, of the bile acids.

6. The results are discussed with reference to Polymorphus nunutus, an acanthocephalan parasite of ducks.