Question

What are the 4 digestive system of ruminant animals?

Answer 1

Grass eating animals (herbivores) like the cow, deer, ox, buffalo and sheep swallow the food without chewing. After feeding, they bring the food from the stomach back into the mouth and chew it. This process is called rumination, and such animals are called ruminants. Though their main diet is plants, they are unable to digest, because of lack of cellulose breaking enzymes. For this they maintain a symbiotic relation with microorganisms. Microbe’s helps in breaking down of cellulose (constituent of plant cell wall). Ruminants have one stomach with four compartments or chambers for digestion of food.

Rumen (First chamber):- The largest organ, that allows for bacterial and chemical breakdown of fiber.

Reticulum (Second chamber):- Called as the “honeycomb” because of the honeycomb appearance of its lining. It collects smaller particles and moves them into the omasum, while the larger particles remain in the rumen for further digestion. It also traps any foreign material that the animal may picks up. It stores foreign objects and prevents the damaging items enters into digestive tract.

Omasum (Third chamber):- Helps in the absorption of water, magnesium, and the volatile fatty acids produced by rumen fermentation, that have not been absorbed into the bloodstream yet.

Abomasum (Fourth chamber):- This is called true stomach, most similar to a stomach in a non-ruminant. Majority of chemical breakdown of food material occurs here with the help of digestive enzymes (pepsin, rennin, bile, etc.) and hydrochloric acid. The abomasum secretes mucous to protect its wall from acid damage.