Structural study of spongiosa tissue in growing sheep.

A study was made of 160 long bones taken from 40 native Merino sheep of both sexes. These animals, which represented uniform growth (mean growth-curve values), were divided into four groups which were slaughtered consecutively at 0, 45, 105 and 270 days old (0, 6.4, 15 and 38.5 weeks, respectively). The following bones were studied; humerus, femur, tibia and os coxae. Thin lamellae taken from the metaphyses of the bones obtained were fixed, decalcified and stained with hematoxylin-eosin to assess the development of the various components of growing bony tissue. The bones studied followed the same maturation pattern; the os coxae proved to be the best histological indicator in differentiating the age of the animals studied.