Ruminants Digestion Flashcards
What is the fleshy hump raised caudally on the tongue?
The torsus. It is separated from the rostral flatter part of the tongue by a groove known as the lingual fossa.
How much saliva does cattle produce in a day?
Over 100 litres and it is alkaline. It helps to buffer the volatile fatty acids produced by fermentation of food.
What are the three main glands?
Parotid. Which lies ventral toe the external ear canal.
Mandibular. Which lies medial to the mandible and extends to the atlantal fossa caudal to the skull.
Sublingual. Divided into 2 parts, one which lies lateral to the tongue on the floor of the mouth. The other part lies more rostrally.
Where else are more minor salivary glands found?
Scattered throughout the mucosa of the mouth and oropharynx.
What muscle does the oesophagus possess along its whole length?
Striated. This allows eructation-the regular regurgitation of partially digested food (cud) From the rumen to the mouth where further mastocation occurs.
The oesophagus traverses the neck and mediastinum before passing through the diaphragm to empty into both..
The reticulum and rumen at the cardia via the reticular groove.
What are the first three stomachs?
The reticulum, the rumen and the omasum. Collectively known as the forestomachs. All play a role in fermentation of fibrous food material and thus have a large symbiotic bacterial and protozoal population.
What comes after the first three stomachs?
Next is the true acid secreting stomach, similar to monogastric animals, known as the abomasum. The forestomachs are poorly developed in the infant ruminant.
The reticular groove is closed in young animals..
Which means suckled milk bypasses the forestomachs and enters directly into the abomasum.
The groove persists in adult animals…
But does not close during eating. Certain chemicals eg. Copper can stimulate closure.
What is the largest of the stomachs.
The rumen. Occupying nearly the whole of the left side of the abdomen. The rumen starts at the cardia dorsally and runinoreticular fold ventrally.
What level of the rib does the rumen separate from the reticulum?
Around the eight rib. And extends caudally to the pelvis. It moves medially and crosses the midline both ventrally and caudally.
The rumen is divided incompletely into a number of Chambers…
The major pillars run horizontally around the rumen dividing it into dorsal and ventral sacs. Smaller vertical pillars create a caudodorsal and caudoventral blind sac at the caudal end of the rumen and a craniodorsal sac (known as the atrium runinis).
What is the name of the craniodorsal sac that communicates with the reticulum?
The atrium ruminis.
What is the mucosa lining of the rumen like?
Same as the reticulum but it’s not thrown up into ridges but into papillated projections which increase surface area of the stomach. This enhances absorption of volatile fatty acids produced by microbial fermentation.
