Ruminant Digestive Tract

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Ruminant Digestive Tract

• Herbivores
• Can ruminate
• - regurgitate
• Multicompartment stomach
• - 4 compartments,

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Mouth

• Cattle use tongue for
• A cow may make 40,000-60,000 jaw movements/day
  remasticating regurgitated feed

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Saliva

• Adult cow may produce 12 gal/day and an adult
  sheep
• Highly buffered to maintain optimal
• rumen pH

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Esophagus

• Peristaltic contractions work in both directions
  for rumination

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Stomach

• Divided into four parts
• 1. Reticulum
• 2. Rumen (paunch)
• 3.
• 4. Abomasum (true stomach)

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Reticulum

• Distinctive honeycomb appearance
• No enzymatic secretions
• Function is to move ingested feed to rumen and the

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Rumen

• Large, hollow, muscular compartment
• Lined with finger-like projections called
• Functions
• -
• -Physical mixing and breakdown
• (muscular contractions)
• -Fermentation chamber

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Rumen

• Favorable environment for microbial growth
• -
• -
• -food supply replenished daily
• -end products of digestion removed

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Omasum

• Omasum is positioned to the right of the rumen
  reticulum
• Contains muscular
• No secretions

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Abomasum

• Walls secrete enzymes

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Small Large Intestine

• Similar to that of non-ruminant

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Esophageal Groove

• Also referred to as
• Groove contracts to form tube allowing milk to
  pass directly to omasum

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Eructation

• Removal of gas from the rumen
• Bloat is caused by inability to eructate
• -

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