Morphological characteristics of tibiotarsal, tarsometatarsal and phalangeal muscles in ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Abstract

Ostrich (Struthio camelus) is the largest living bird not indiginious in our climate, but with a currently increasing trend of farm breeding in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the purposes of food and leather industry. Beside the standard laboratory methods for meat specification, it is also necessary to be familiar with morphological characteristics of the ostrich musculature, in order to be able to specify the meat on the market, i.e. to determinate authenticity of the
meat declaration. The research was conducted on three mature female African Black ostriches in the age range between 3 to 7 years. By dissecting tibiotarsal, tarsometatarsal and phalangeal region, 15 muscles were identified with their basic morphometric and functional characteristics established.