System 3: Ruminants Flashcards
What are the four parts of the stomach?
Reticulum, rumen, omasum, and abomasum
What section of the stomach is responsible for water absorption?
The omasum is responsible for the removal of water
What section of the stomach is responsible for food fermentation?
The reticulum and rumen
What is part is responsible for the digestion and absorption, mostly bacteria.
What is it referred to?
The abomasum (and the small intestine)
The true stomach (acts like stomachs of simple digestive systems)
What diet does a ruminant consume?
High fibre and low nutrient dense food
How is the essential nutrient intake being met?
consumption of bacteria and VFA’s
- this meets the energy requirements and allows for gluconeogensis
What is rumination and which part of the stomach is responsible for that?
Rumination is the part of the stomach in which food is regurgitated to be broken down further to expose the bacteria in the cellulose and hemicellulose. This breaking down allows for bacteria fermentation. The reticulum is responsible for this and will capture the larger food through its honeycomb structure.
Which one of the four sections is the largest?
The rumen is the largest. This is the area where there is a lot of violate fatty acid absorption.
What are rumen papillae?
Rumen papillae are part of the rumen which is used to increase the area of nutrient absorption.
How much of a ruminants energy is made in the rumen because of the increase in surface area from the rumen papillae?
60%-80% from the absorption of VFA’s produced during the fermentation of the food.
What is eructation?
Eructation is when gases are released (burping) through fermentation.
What are the two gases that are released through fermentation?
Methane and carbon dioxide.
What section is the region of microbial fermentation?
Microbial fermentation occurs in the reticulum.
What are three benefits to fermentation?
- Minerals have been released from the food and can be absorbed in the small intestine and essential amino acids have been synthesized. This is because the foregut fermenters have the release before the small intestine whereas hindgut fermenters have all the bacteria (lipid and proteins), free amino acids, vitamins and minerals released after the small intestine.
- Ruminants provide meat and milk and do not require high nutrient dense food which can help in saving money.
- Non-protein nitrogen can be metabolized, sources like urea which can enter the blood stream which allows for recycling of catabolized nitrogen back into he bioavailability protein in the GIT (goes from non-protein nitrogen to protein nitrogen).
Does it make sense to feed ruminants high quality nutrient dense foods? Explain.
No it does not make sense as these animals have evolved to consume low nutrient dense food and more high fibre food. Feeding either ruminants or pseudo-ruminants high nutrient dense foods can cause dysregulation of the bacterial metabolism in the colon which can cause acidosis which can lead to death.
