Ultrasonography in Small Ruminants Reproduction

Diagnostic ultrasound is a simple, noninvasive and innocuous technique that permits tissue interfaces to be detected and their shape and size described. The present project was planned to study the possible use of diagnostic ultrasound to assess the spontaneous lesions of testes and epididymides of rams and male goats. For this purpose, 10 normal organs and 28 organs with spontaneous lesions of testis and epididymis were collected from rams and male goats after slaughter. After manual palpation, these organs were imaged ultrasonically using a B-mode, real time ultrasound scanner, fitted with a 5.0 MHz convex array transducer. After ultrasound examination, each organ was dissected and the nature of the lesions and their contents, if any, was observed. Tissue samples from selected organs were processed for histopathological studies after staining with hematoxylin and eosin stain. There was no difference in the echotexture of normal testes and epididymides of both species i.e. rams and male goats.