- Ruminant animals include cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, dear, etc.
- Their stomach is formed of four compartments namely Rumen, Reticulum, Omasum and Abomasum.
- Food is chewed and mixed in mouth forming bolus and passes to stomach through esophagus.
- Rumen receives the food and broken-down into smaller pieces and it is received by reticulum
- In reticulum, food is further broken-down and form cuds. This cud returns back to mouth, this is called regurgitation. In mouth, it is re-chewed and then re-swallowed back to rumen.
- Now in rumen, microbial organisms work against starch and other polysaccharides.
- This fermented food is passed to omasum. Here, vitamins, water, short chain fatty acids are absorbed.
- PH decrease and enzyme are released which help in further breakdown of food.
- Now, this is passed to abomasum. This gland releases HCL and other enzymes which help in breakdown of food and pass it to small and large intestine.
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