Pathological observations of hepatic tumours in ducks

During August to October, 1983, 73 of 113 ducks submitted to our laboratory from a duck farm for pathological examination were found to have a variety of hepatic tumours. Grossly, the lesions could be divided into three groups: nodular, macro-nodular and diffuse forms; the nodular form was the most frequently seen (54/73). Histopathologically, the tumours could be classified into six categories: liver cell adenoma, cholangioadenoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, mixed hepatic carcinomas and metastatic hepatic carcinoma, and the hepatocellular carcinoma was the most common (68/73).