Filiform papilla of european and zebu cattles tongue / Papila filiforme da língua de bovinos taurinos e zebuínos

ABSTRACT

The tongue is the principal tool to animals do self-cleaning, mainly for ruminants. Grooming behavior is responsible for cleaning ectoparasites in cattle, especially ticks. The cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus is one of the most harmful, resulting in great damages to the Brazilian livestock. It is well known that Zebu breeds are resistant and European breeds are susceptible to this tick. The importance of self-grooming in reducing the cattle tick infestation is well-known, but not the role of the tongue morfology in the process. The tongue has four types of papillae being the filiform papilla the responsible for the self-cleaning. The aim of this work was to know and to compare the filiform papilla from 8 Nelore (Zebu), and 8 Holstein and 2 Brow-Swiss (European) cattle. A biopsy was taken off from 18 steers tongues (about two-year-olds), through an 8 mm diameter punch, in the central anterior third part, at a distance of 3 cm from the tip. The animals were previously anaesthetized with 2% xylazine hydrochloride, and lidocaine hydrochloride 2.0 g. After the tissue removal, the local lesions received an ointment of triamcinolone acetonide, 1.0 mg/g. The biopsies were submitted to fixation and dehydration (required for studies in Scanning Electron Microscope) at the NAP/MEPA-ESALQ-USP Laboratory. The papillae measuring were performed with the aid of a measurement tool between

RESUMO

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