Karem R. Forensic veterinary criteria to determine age and sex of dairy cattle by morphological features of naso-cerebral section of skull

The thesis is devoted to the study of the morphological features of the naso-cerebral section of the skull in dairy cattle depending on the sex in a wide age range (from birth to 10 years) at the different levels of structural organization. It has been found out that the assessment of the informative quantitative parameters of the skull (craniometric, rhoentgenodensitometric, spectral) and the formalization of its qualitative characteristics (craniometric, roentgenomorphological) allows to determine the age of the cattle comprehensively, objectively and trustworthy on the basis of the reference-test principle. The latter one is the basis for the author's computer program "Cattle Skull", which automatizes the developed methods of cattle age and sex determination by the skull and eliminates the errors during the processing of the results of the study, the above program improves the accuracy and objectivity of the cranial examinations. Osteologic technology, which is based on the consideration of the integrity of the skull, the number and complexity of applied methods of skull research, allows to determine the age of the dairy cattle by the qualitative and quantitative parameters of the naso-cerebral section of the skull from birth to the age of 10 years with an accuracy of 2-10 months.