Morphological Characteristics of Atrioventricular Heart Valves of a Female Amur Leopard Cat (Prionailurus Bengalensis Euptilurus) in Normal Conditions

In the process of work with the corpses of animals, we came to the conclusion that the study of anatomy and morphology of rare protected species is of extreme importance in their identification. This necessity is caused by periodic veterinary and forensic examinations on fragmented or skinned material, when its affiliation is difficult. The research was carried out in the Center for Diagnostics of Animal Diseases of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education Primorskaya State Agricultural Academy. The object of the study for this article was the internal structures of the heart, more precisely, the atrioventricular valves, of female Amur leopard cats. This subspecies of cat is rare and sensitive to the quality of the environment. Four organs were studied. The following structures of tricuspid and mitral valves were studied: papillary muscles, tendinous cords and valve leaflets. The authors of the article measured the diameter and length of the indicated structures and performed statistical processing of the obtained results. The dissections were carried out using generally accepted methods. The form of the heart was cone-shaped (index up to 65%). The number of papillary muscles of the right ventricle was found to be variable, additional ones were included in the process of retention of the main valve cords. There are two papillary muscles in the left ventricle, they are bigger than in the right ventricle.