Morphological study and determination of M/E ratio of the haematopoietic cells of the duck

In order to study the morphology of the haematopoietic cells of the native ducks of the north of Iran, bone marrow samples were collected from the proximal tibiotarsus bone of 10 healthy adult ducks. The bone marrow smears were stained using the Giemsa technique. The results indicated that the development and formation of blood cells in the bone marrow of ducks were similar to other birds, whereas the morphology of the cells was similar to chickens. The mean M/E ratio was 1.00, the mean proliferating erythroid percentage was 40.17%, the mean proliferating myeloid percentage was 40.27% and the mean proliferating thrombocyte percentage was 16.42%.