RESUMO
Twenty-eight fowls (Gallus gallus domesticus) of the Red Bro Cou Nu lineage were studied. They were about 35 days old and had their arteries filled with Neoprene Latex 450", aqueous solution at 50%, stained with specific pigment (Globo S/A, Tintas e Pigmentos), and then fixed in aqueous solution of formaldehyde at 10%. The present study aimed to quantify the thymic lobes and identify the main arteries responsible for the blood supply of these lobes and their frequencies. The number of thymic lobes on the right antimere varied from two to 11, with a greater frequency of 8 lobes; and the left antimere showed a variation from one to eight, with a greater frequency of five lobes. The arteries destined to the thymus were composed by direct and indirect branches of the following arteries: left and right common vagus nerve, left and right cranial thyroid, left and right caudal thyroid, left and right ascending esophageal, right ingluvial, left and right cutaneous, and right common carotid. The right thymic lobes, regardless their origin, received from eight to 27 vascular branches, and the left thymic lobes, from eight to 24 branches.