Functional Anatomy of digestive tract of Ruminants
Ruminant digestive tract includes:
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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.
- 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.
- 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
- Duodenum: Secretion from gall bladder, pancreas mixes with partially digested foodstuffs.
- Jejunum: Consists of small finger like projection (villi) which increase the surface areas for nutrient absorption.
- 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
