THE PANCREAS
The pancreas is of irregular form and of pinkish-yellow color. The pancreas of the calf is consumed as a delicacy, together with the thymus, under the title of sweetbread. For descriptive purposes it may be regarded as consisting of two lobes that join in a body located cranial to the portal vein, where the gland is adherent to the liver.
The left lobe extends across the abdomen, insinuated between the liver, diaphragm, and great vessels dorsally and the intestinal mass and dorsal ruminal sac ventrally; it thus enters the retroperitoneal area above the rumen. The right lobe has a more complete peritoneal covering and follows the mesentery of the descending part of the duodenum, ventral to the right kidney and against the flank.Although developed from dorsal and ventral primordia, the excretory system is usually reduced in cattle to a single (accessory) duct when the ventral outgrowth loses its direct connection to the gut. The surviving duct enters the descending duodenum about 20 to 25 cm past the entry of the bile duct. Its orifice is raised on a slight papilla.
The pancreas of small ruminants is very similar in form and topography to that of cattle. A single ventral duct is present, and it opens into the duodenum with the bile duct, usually by means of a common trunk.