Functional Anatomy of digestive tract of Ruminants

Ruminant digestive tract includes:

1 .Mouth

• digestion starts after chewing food in mouth
• breakdown food
• Saliva present in mouth helps to moisten the food and help in breakdown of starch.

2. Esophagus

• Pushes food towards stomach
• If necessary, it helps to regurgitate cud for further chewing (Rumination). Now, this cud is swallowed again into the reticulum.

3. Stomach

Esophagus pushes cud into Reticulum.

• Liquid portion rapidly moves into omasum and abomasum from reticulorumen.
• Solid portion slowly moves towards Rumen for fermentation and Solid portion in rumen forms a mat.
• Rumen microbes ferment solid particles and produce volatile fatty acids and other aminoacids and vitamins.
• Some absorption occurs here, in stomach.

Small intestine:

Consists of duodenum, jejunum and ileum

1. Duodenum: Secretion from gall bladder, pancreas mixes with partially digested foodstuffs.
2. Jejunum: Consists of small finger like projection (villi) which increase the surface areas for nutrient absorption.
3. Illeum :

• Absorption of vitamin, bile salts and other nutrients passed through jejunum takes place.
• Valve present at the end of illeum protects from backward flow of nutrients.

Caecum:

Pouch like structure that connects small intestine and large intestines

• absorb fluids and salts
• Mix the contents with mucus.

Large intestine:

It is terminal portion of digestive tract function as

• absorption of water (colon is main site)
• microbes digest, some undigested particles too