Morphological aspects of the stomach in the white-eared opossum (Didelphis albiventris)

• Grant number: 25/00867-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Bruno Cesar Schimming
• Grantee: Fernanda Gomes Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

One of the most common marsupials in Brazil is the species Didelphis albiventris, which is known as the white-eared opossum. These opossums have crepuscular and nocturnal habits. They are opportunistic and omnivorous and have increasingly adapted to urban life. Although the white-eared opossum is frequently observed in rural and urban anthropogenic environments and can be considered one of the wild mammal species with the greatest contact with humans, there is little anatomical knowledge about this marsupial species. To our knowledge, there are no articles describing the anatomy of the Didelphis albiventris stomach. Thus, with the aim of contributing to this knowledge, the purpose of this project is to describe the morphology of the stomach of white-eared opossums, addressing their macroscopic anatomy and histological characteristics. For this purpose, five animals will be used in this study and divided into two groups: group 1 (n = 2) for macroscopic studies and group 2 (n = 3), where fragments of the various regions of the stomach (fundus, cardiac region, body and pyloric region) will be fixed and sent for routine histological staining with hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's Trichrome. The findings will be compared with those reported for other eutherian and metatherian mammals. The knowledge about the anatomy of the white-eared opossum stomach will fill a gap of the anatomy of this Brazilian marsupial, in addition to contributing to the development of future nutritional research.