Air Sacs in the Turkey

Abstract

ONLY one specific study on the respiratory system of the turkey has been found. This consisted of two papers published in 1953 by Cover. Cover reviewed the observations of previous investigators on the chicken. He pointed out that in general all reports agree on the number of air sacs in the chicken (4 paired and 1 single) but they often have been named differently. Disagreement centers around the cervical or thoraco-cervical and the posterior thoracic air sacs. Cover (1953b) observed in the turkey that “the paired posterior thoracic and thoraco-cervical as well as the single anterior thoracic air sacs are combined into a single large compartment, the aggregate sac, which communicates with the air passageways of the lung at its anterior ventral border. There are two unions, one with a ventral bronchus and another with an area of several parabronchi. The combined sacs have the same location and visceral relations . . .