Adrenal Gland Weights of Hereford and Brahman Cattle

Abstract

Summary

Weights of individual and paired adrenals together with adrenal-body weight ratio for male, female and castrated Hereford and Brahman cattle are presented. There was no significant difference between weight ratios for the 2 species although adrenal-body weight ratio was consistently smaller for Brahman cattle. Unlike most other mammalian species examined, adrenal-body weight ratio tends to increase slightly with age. Adrenal weights of cattle are apparently not affected by sex. Castration decreased adrenal-body weight ratio, which is the reverse of that observed in other species. While the left adrenal was consistently larger than the right, total adrenal weight was much smaller in relation to unit body weight than any other mammalian species for which data are available. The bovine adrenal cortex appears to be smaller in relation to the whole gland than for most other mammals as does the zona fasciculata.