AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE www.arccjournals.com Indian J. Anim. Res., 53(6) 2019: 741-745 Print ISSN:0367-6722 / Online ISSN:0976-0555 *Corresponding author’s e-mail:srinivas.ouat@gmail.com 1 Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Animal Science, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263 145, Uttarakhand, India. 2 Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Jharsuguda, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar-751 003, Odisha, India. Gross morphological and biometrical studies on the typical cervical vertebrae of Blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus) S. Sathapathy*, B.S. Dhote 1 , I. Singh 1 , D. Mahanta 1 , S. Tamilselvan 1 , M. Mrigesh 1 and S.K. Joshi 2 Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Histology, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandary, Bhubaneswar-751 003, Odisha, India. Received: 02-02-2018 Accepted: 13-06-2018 DOI: 10.18805/ijar.B-3572 ABSTRACT The present study was carried out on the third (C3), fourth (C4) and fifth (C5) cervical vertebrae of six specimens of adult Blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus) of either sex. It was found that the transverse process was bifid with a transverse foramen located at its base. The upper part of the transverse process projected backward and was short and stout, while the lower part was directed downward and forward and was found to be longer and more plate-like. The bodies of C3-C5 tended to become shorter and wider from front to backwards. The supraspinous process was found to be short and centrally tuberous in C3 that gradually increased in height and length to C5 with forward inclination. The articular processes of the typical cervical vertebrae slightly convex cranially and concave caudally. The posterior articular facets of C5 were egg shaped, whereas those of C4 were like the map of Africa in the Blue bull. A well defined infraspinous process projected from the vertebral body that divided the base into two halves. The biometrical observations on different parameters of typical cervical vertebra reflected significance (P<0.05) differences between the sexes of this species. Key words: Blue bull, Gross, Morphometry, Typical cervical vertebrae. INTRODUCTION The Blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus) is known to be one of the biggest antelopes in Asia and is widely found in both the forests and adjoining villages with enough green grass. It is quite prevalent in northern and central parts of India especially in the foothills of Himalayas, eastern part of Pakistan and southern part of Nepal, but has vanished from Bangladesh. They are usually seen in day times in the meadow pasture, timberland areas and agricultural land area. The Blue bulls are safeguarded beneath the IUCN since 2003 and also under safeguard of ‘Schedule III’ of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Bagchi et al., 2004). The massive body of the Blue bull can be attributed to the large skeleton of the antelope. Further, the skeleton comprises of large and massive bones of axial and appendicular skeleton that not only protects the viscera, but also provides shape and support to the heavy musculature of the Blue bull. The present osteo-morphological study will develop a baseline data on the biometry of typical cervical vertebra of adult Blue bull. Further, these data would immensely help the wild life anatomists and Veterinarians in species identification and solving forensic and vetero-legal cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study was carried out on the typical cervical vertebrae of six specimens of adult Blue bulls (Boselaphus tragocamelus) of either sex. The permission for the collection of bones was acquired from the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Government of Rajasthan. The bones were possessed from the Jodhpur zoo, Rajasthan getting authentic confirmation from the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Government of Rajasthan vide letter no. F, 3(04) Tech-II/CCF/2013/2077, dated 12.12.2014, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) vide letter no. F, 3(04) Tech-11/CCF/2013/2326, dated 12.01.2015 and subsequently from the Deputy Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), Jodhpur s.n./sam/388-90, dated 22.01.2015. The skeletons were taken out from the burial ground that was located in the premises of the office of the Deputy Conservator of Forest Wildlife (WL), Jodhpur. Afterwards, the specimens were processed as per standard technique given by Snedecor and Cochran (1994). The gross study was conducted under the supervision of the Zoo Authority, Jodhpur, India. The different parameters of third, fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae were measured in Blue bull as a whole and also sex wise variations were recorded. The data obtained were subjected to routine statistical analysis (Snedecor and Cochran, 1994) and independent samples t-Test with Systat Software Inc, USA and SPSS 16.0 version software. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The third (C3), fourth (C4) and fifth (C5) cervical vertebrae were typical type in Blue bull. The transverse