Ruminants 1 Flashcards
What does the order Arteriodactyla mean?
-the even toed ungulates
What is the suborder of ruminants?
ruminantia
Where does the word ruminant come from?
-Latin
-meaning to chew again referring to cud-chewing exhibited by ruminants
What do ruminants do that other herbivores don’t?
-regurgitate feed for repeated chewing
Why are ruminants important?
-Capable of utilizing fibrous feedstuffs
-less competition for food with humans
-Agriculture importance
-Food production for humans
How do ruminants have lass competition for food with humans?
-they are herbivores
-can be supported on vegetation from land that can’t support other crops
Why do ruminants have an agriculture importance?
-sheep domestication 11,000 years ago
-goats 9,000 years ago
-cattle 8,500 years ago
How are ruminants important to food production for humans?
-meat, milk, fiber, work (draft)
-940 million - 1.4 billion cattle (second most abundant)
-1 billion sheep (third most)
-720 million goats ( fifth most)
-other domesticated ruminants: buffalo, camels, alpacas, llama, reindeer, yaks
How have ruminants, specifically cattle, adapted?
-cattle have adapted world wide
-artic great utilization of reindeer and yaks
-wet, tropical area more buffalo
How have ruminants, specifically in drier areas, adapted?
-sheep
-goats
-camels
Where have alpacas and llamas adapted to?
Central and South America
What are the ruminant feeding types?
-Concentrate selectors or browsers
-Grass and roughage eaters
-Intermediate, mixed feeder
What are concentrate selector or browser feeders?
-select highly nutritious plants or selective of the highly nutritious plant parts and high digestible
-many deer
What grass and roughage eaters?
-Ability to digest more fibrous plant material than concentrate selectors
-grazing, grass eating species
-cattle, sheep: domestic and wild bison, African antelope
What are intermediate, mixed feeders?
-Characteristics of both types
-potential for seasonal changes in diet that result in changes in feeding type
-Elk, caribou
What is the main characteristic of a ruminant?
-4 chambers or compartments
What are the four compartments of the ruminant stomach?
-rumen
-reticulum
-omasum
-abomasum
What side of a cow is the rumen on?
The left
What is the reticulum?
-not separated completely from rumen
-aids in movement of food into the rumen or omasum
-regurgitation of bolus during rumination
-collects hardware and prevents movement
-honeycomb
What is the rumen?
-fermentation vat
-muscular walls aid in the mixing and movement of content (rumination)
-Absorption of VFAs and NH3 through rumen wall
How does the fermentation vat in the rumen work?
-allows digestion of plant cell wall biomass
-main site of fermentation: reticulo-rumen (fermentation chamber)
-ANAEROBIC: low to no O2
How does the rumen absorb VFAs and NH3 through rumen wall?
-surface covered in papillae
-absorptive structures for VFAs
What is the omasum?
-between rumen and reticulum
-content must flow through to reach abomasum
-may be involved in particle size reduction and water absorption
What is the abomasum?
-connected to omasum
-functions similarly to glandular stomach of non-ruminants
-mucus, HCl, enzymes, secreted to initiate digestion
What are the four steps of rumination?
-regurgitation
-remastication
-reensalivation
-reswallowing
How many hours a day do ruminants ruminate?
-about 8 hours a day
Do fibrous material cause longer rumination?
Yes, fibrous material stimulate longer rumination time, longer retention
What is the origin of rumination?
-not clear
-some think that it is a survival means of early ruminant: eat and hide
What is eructation?
-belching
-gas from microbial fermentation (12-30L of gas)
What layers form in the rumen?
-gases on top
-today’s hay in the middle
-grain and yesterday hay on the bottom
Sequence of food through a ruminant?
- rumen
- reticulum
- esophagus
- omasum
- abomasum
What does the rumen contain? do?
-there are sacks and structures that help with mixing
-muscle contract
When a ruminant is new to the world how does its digestive system work?
-limited rumen development at birth
-milk-fed neonates, no need for fiber digestion
-with development and change in diet, the rumen increases
-eventually overwhelming volume of the stomach is rumen
What is the major compartment at birth?
-abomasum
Where do esophageal grooves route milk to?
-the acidic stomach
when does the rumen start to dominant on volume?
3-4 months
How do feeds influence rumen development?
-influences the development of rumen papillae
-feeds that produce more VFA stimulate papillae development
-the presence of VFA, papillae expand and increase in size
