Chicken ovaries have a great economic importance in the egg production that consider as a valuable source of protein for the human consumption. Although vertebrates including the chicken display a superficial bilateral symmetry, most of the internal organs including the ovaries develop and locate with a consistent gonadal asymmetry as only the left ovary and left oviduct fully developed. Hence, lacking the scientific papers that concerned with this aspect of the developmental biology, our study will under taken to elucidate the post hatching development of left ovary of 30 post hatched female chicks at various stages of development (10 one day old, 10 one week old, 10 one month old). The left ovaries were examined anatomically, histologically and ultra-structural investigations. The left ovary of all previous ages' female chicks located ventromedial to the anterior lobe of the left kidney. The left ovary histologically exhibited a thick cortex and narrow medulla. The left ovarian cortex of the one day old chicks and the one week old chicks harboring a germ cells which presented as a solitary cells or in cell clusters. However, the left ovarian cortex of the one-month-old chicks contained variable size ovarian follicles surrounded by the theca layers.
Key words: Alexandria chicken, left ovary, gross anatomy, histology, SEM, TEM.
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