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

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.