Ruminant - Characteristics and Digestive Process

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What Do Ruminant Animals Mean?

Ruminants are herbivorous mammals which belong to the suborder Ruminantia. Examples include cattle, buffalo, antelopes, giraffes, camels, bison, etc. Since they are herbivorous, they digest their food in a series of steps to break down the plant-based complex carbohydrates easily. They are largely farmed across the world to use in the production of milk, meat and other products.

Ruminants are known for the structure of their stomach. They have four-chambered stomachs, which are used to digest food multiple times. They chew and regurgitate their plant-based diet several times a day. Then this food is further digested into the chambers of the stomach.

The Ruminant Animal’s Multi-chambered Stomach

As mentioned earlier, a ruminant animal possesses four-chambered stomachs. These four chambers are the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. Among these, the rumen and reticulum are connected and form the larger area of the stomach.

The rumen is known to be the largest chamber of all four chambers, and hence, it is used for the storage of food. It helps in fermenting the stored food.

The Reticulum helps in collecting the cattle feed and further moving it to other chambers of the stomach once the feed is broken down. It has a pouch-shaped structure.

The omasum is a chamber that absorbs water and other digestive material. It looks like a globe-like structure.

And lastly, the abomasum chamber of the ruminant stomach, which functions just like a non-ruminant’s stomach during digestion. It is lined with glands and secretes digestive enzymes, which help in further breaking down the cattle feed.

To further understand the chambers, you can refer to our article on the difference between omasum and abomasum.

The Ruminant’s Digestive Process

Ruminant animals eat very quickly and eat a lot of food. But their body is unable to produce the digestive enzymes to break down the food instantly, which is why the food is initially kept in the rumen to soften it and further break it down. To understand the digestion process in detail, you can check our article on digestion in ruminants

Ruminant animals go through various steps of digestion, as they have four-chambered stomachs. These steps are:

  • The plant-based diet is chewed by mixing it with saliva and gulped down.
  • The food then reaches the rumen, where microbial fermentation takes place to break down the cellulose.
  • Solid food particles clump together to form cud, which is again regurgitated into the mouth.
  • The cud is again chewed for the second time and swallowed into the reticulorumen for further processing.
  • The degraded digesta from the reticulorumen goes to omasum, where volatile fatty acids and some other nutrients get absorbed into the bloodstream.
  • All the digested food and materials are finally sent to the abomasum so that enzymes can further break down the food and absorb the remaining nutrients.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q1

What do ruminant animals mean?

Ruminants are herbivorous mammals which belong to the suborder Ruminantia. Examples include cattle, buffalo, antelopes, giraffes, camels, bison, etc. Since they are herbivorous, they digest their food in a series of steps to break down the plant-based complex carbohydrates easily. They are largely farmed across the world to use in the production of milk, meat and other products.
Q2

Which are the four chambers of a ruminant animal?

The Rumen is known to be the largest chamber of all four chambers. The Reticulum helps in collecting the cattle feed and further moving it to other chambers of the stomach once the feed is broken down. The omasum is a chamber that absorbs volatile fatty acids and ammonia. And lastly, the abomasum chamber of the ruminant stomach, which functions just like a non-ruminant’s stomach during digestion.
Q3

Define the digestive process of a ruminant.

The plant-based diet is chewed by mixing it with saliva and gulped down. The gulped feed is then sent to the rumen to separate the solids and liquids. The food is stored in the rumen for storage and fermentation to break down the cellulose. Solid digested food (small round clumps), which is known as cud, is again regurgitated into the mouth. The cud is again chewed for the second time and swallowed into the reticulorumen for further processing. Digested liquids from the rumen go to omasum, where some nutrients get absorbed. All the digested food and materials are finally sent to the abomasum so that enzymes can further break down the food and absorb the remaining nutrients