developmental study of prenatal goat testis

there are some reports about development of prenatal ruminants' testis. but there is not any report about it in goat; so the present study was performed on 23 goats fetuses collected from ahvaz slaughterhouse. after measuring fetuses crown rump length (crl), their approximate ages were determined. on the basis of the crl, the fetuses were divided into 6 groups. then testes were extruded out and fixed and tissue sections were prepared by routine procedures and then were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and periodic acid schiff. the biometric results showed a reasonable increase in the number of sertoli cells and gonocytes, diameter of sex cord and tunica albuginea during the development age dependences. the number of sex cords in each microscopic field showed an increase first and decreased thereafter. there is no difference between prenatal goat testis developments with prenatal testicular stages in other ruminants.