A note on the biliary system of the domestic duck and a method for collecting bile.

One aspect of the continuation of our earlier work on the environment of the acanthocephalan parasite Polymorphus minutus in the intestine of domestic ducks (Crompton & Nesheim, 1970) made it necessary to devise a surgical method for preventing bile from entering the duck's intestine. In outline, the method was to ligate the bile ducts and to cannulate the gall-bladder so that all the bile synthesized in the liver could be collected and jaundice avoided. The method is described in this paper since it may be useful to others studying nutrition and digestion in other animals besides ducks. The development of the method needed some knowledge of the morphology of the duck's biliary system. This information does not appear to be readily available in the literature and we include our observations to supplement those of Weber & Ferret