Animal Nutrition

Lecture 2
GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT
The Ruminant
• AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE
Digestive System
• Animal Science
& Nutrition
 Ruminant Digestive Systems

The digestive system is a group of organs

working together to convert food into energy and

basic nutrients to feed the entire body.

The digestive system changes food nutrients into

compounds that are easily absorbed into the

bloodstream.
 Ruminant Digestive Systems

Ruminants are those animals that contain a multi-

chambered digestive system (polygastric) that allows the
animal to gain the majority of their nutritional needs from
forages and other roughages.

Cattle, sheep/goats, deer and elk

Forage refers to grasses, Roughages refers to other high-
fiber food sources.
 Ruminant Digestive Systems

This gives the ruminant animals a decided

advantage in digesting and utilizing those parts of

plants and other compounds which are practically

useless to animals with simple stomach.

 Ruminant Digestive Systems

Non-ruminant animals cannot obtain

the nutritional value from most plant

sources unless the food has been

modified (ground, mashed, etc.)

Digestive Tract - Goat
 Anatomy of the Digestive Tract

Food from the mouth passes through the

esophagus and enters the rumen , where it is mixed
with ruminal contents and Fermented by ruminal
microorganisms.

Some of feed is regurgitated for more mastication

(chewing the cud) and then is returned to the rumen
and reticulum for additional fermenting action.
 Fatty acids resulting from fermentation of

the feed are absorbed in to the blood stream

from rumen and reticulum.

 The remainder of the feed passes through the

omasum and abomasums where further

digestive action taken place.

 Finally , it enters the intestines for
additional digestion and absorption into
the blood stream or excretion as feces.
A description of the organs and other
structure involved in the digestive
process is contained in the following
sections:
 1- Mouth, Tongue, and Teeth

The lips of a cow are rather immobile and are not

very useful in drawing food into the mouth.

The main organ of prehension is the Tongue.

It is long, strong, mobile and can readily be
curved around forages and other feed, which are
drawn between the incisor teeth below and the
dental pad above and cut off.
Lips of a cow
Tongue
 Salivary glands and esophagus:

Salivary glands: located in the oral cavity

(mouth) secrete the liquid that together are
known as saliva.
In cattle the glands are known as the parotid,
submaxillary, inferior molar, ventral sublingual,
pharyngeal and labial.
 The Esophagus: is the tube leading from the
mouth to the rumen. Its length is about 3.5 feet in
mature cattle.
Feed and saliva mixed in the mouth pass down
the esophagus to the rumen, and ruminal contents
also periodically pass back up the esophagus
(regurgitation) for additional mastication before
re-swallowing.
 Rumen
Rumen – This is the first compartment of a ruminant animal.

Most feed collects here after being swallowed.

Cellulose is broken down here with the help of rumen microbes.

the organ that allows for bacterial and chemical breakdown of

fiber to gain the proteins and energy from plant sources.

 this is largest and acts as a storage or holding vat for feed. It is

also a fermentation vat

 On left side of the animal

 Largest part of the stomach, makes up

 80% of the stomach

 Lighter feed collects here (cellulose)

 Absorbs nutrients

 Requires a lot of water

The rumen has a very thick, muscular wall.

It fills most of the left-side of the abdomen

In cattle the rumen can have a capacity of up
to 55-65 gallons!

Normal 25-30 gallons

The walls of the rumen contain papillae (that
can be up to 1 cm. in length), where the
bacteria that are used to breakdown fiber live.
Papillae in Rumen
Papillae in Rumen
 Reticulum:

Second compartment of the stomach i.e. next the

feed moves into reticulum
The reticulum is only partially separated from the
rumen by a low partition .
The thick walls of the reticulum resemble a
Honeycomb, this part helps to remove foreign matter
from the food material.
 It is very thick and therefore harder to damage.

 Helps open and close rumen, makes up 5% of the

stomach
Reticulum - full
Reticulum - cleaned
 Omasum:

• is Third chamber of the stomach.

After fermenting action in the rumen and
reticulum, feed passes through the reticulo-omasal
orifice into the omasum.

This also called the "manyplies" contains leaves

of tissue (like pages in a book).
 Omasum
• Right side of animal, makes up 8% of the stomach

 The omasum absorbs water and other substances

from digestive contents.

 Feed material (ingesta) between the leaves will be

drier than that found in the other compartments.

Omasum - full
 Abomasum

Fourth compartment of the stomach

Where true digestion occurs

The true, glandular stomach very similar to the stomach of

non-ruminants.

this is where the majority of chemical breakdown of food

material occurs.

mixes in digestive enzymes (pepsin, rennin, bile, etc.).

On right side of animal, 8% of stomach

Abomasum – inside view
 Ruminant Digestive Systems

–Followed by:
• Small Intestine  Cecum  Large
Intestine  Rectum Anus
 Small intestine

The small intestine, so named, because of its diameter

rather than its length, is a folded tube about 140 feet
and inches in diameter in mature cattle.
The small intestine receives the secretions of the
pancreas and the gallbladder, which aid digestion.

Most of the digestive process is completed here, and

many nutrients are absorbed through the blood stream.
 Cecum:

 The cecum of a cow is small and of little

importance.
The cecum is the large area located at the
junction of the small and large intestine,
where some previously undigested fiber may
be broken down.
 Large intestine:

Contents from the small intestine and cecum pass

into the large intestine, a tube about 35 feet long
varying from 2 to 5 inches in diameter which ends
at the Anus.

begins to prepare unused food material for

removal from the body
 Factions of the digestive tract

The primary purpose of the digestive tract is to

convert plants and other feed consumed by the

cow in to chemical compounds which can be

absorbed into the blood stream for use as nutrients

for the tissues of the body.

 It also provides a means of excreting waste
products of tissue metabolism and undigested
feed residues.
In order to accomplish these functions, many
processes are involved, including Mastication,
salivation, rumination, digestion and
absorption. These processes are the subject of
this section.
 Mastication

Chewing or mastication is the process by which food is

crushed and ground by teeth.
It is the first step of digestion, and it increases the surface area
of foods to allow a more efficient break down by enzymes.
Cattle and some other animals, called ruminants, chew food
more than once to extract more nutrients. Complete
mastication of regurgitated ruminal contents occurs while
cows are resting after eating.
 Salvation

Tremendous amounts of saliva are secreted by the

cow, especially when rations high in dry roughages
are fed.
Saliva has the dual role of lubricating the feed
before it is swallowed and providing buffering
action in the rumen with its high content of
bicarbonate and phosphate.
Microbial digestion in the reticulo-rumen

After entering the reticulo- rumen the feed mixes

with ruminal fluid which contains billions of
microorganisms of both bacterial and protozoal
organ.

These microorganisms break-down the complex

carbohydrates , by fermenting them to short-chain
fatty acids through action of their enzymes.
The Fatty Acids then are absorbed directly

from the rum and reticulum into blood

stream of the cow for use as energy sources

or as carbon sources for synthesis of many

important compounds, including milk fat.

 Similarly , protein in feed is broken down to
peptides , amino acids ammonia, and amines.
 The microorganisms are these substances as
building blocks for their own cells.
 Eventually , the microorganisms are passed
down the intestinal tract , digested , and used as
a protein source by the cow