Assessment of the pigeon (Columba livia) retina with spectral domain optical coherence tomography

ABSTRACT

Background@#To assess the normal retina of the pigeon eye using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and establish a normative reference. @*Methods@#Twelve eyes of six ophthalmologically normal pigeons (Columba livia) were included. SD-OCT images were taken with dilated pupils under sedation. Four meridians, including the fovea, optic disc, red field, and yellow field, were obtained in each eye. The layers, including full thickness (FT), ganglion cell complex (GCC), thickness from the retinal pigmented epithelium to the outer nuclear layer (RPE-ONL), and from the retinal pigmented epithelium to the inner nuclear layer (RPE-INL), were manually measured. @*Results@#The average FT values were significantly different among the four meridians (p 0.05). @*Conclusions@#Measured data could be used as normative references for diagnosing pigeon retinopathies and further research on avian fundus structure.