Animal Science 42 Laboratory

Pract. 3, Act. 2
The digestive system

The digestive system includes the digestive tract and its associated glands. This tract, a tubular
structure for ingestion and digestion of food, has an ultimate purpose of providing efficient
assimilation of nutrients necessary for life. The digestive system consists of the parts of the body
involved in chewing and digesting feed. This system also moves the digested feed through the animal’s
body and absorbs the products of digestion. Different species of animals are better able to digest
certain types of feeds than others. This difference occurs because of the various types of digestive
systems found in animals.

Digestion is the process of breaking down feed into simple substances that can be absorbed
by the body. Absorption is taking of the digested parts of the feed into the bloodstream.
There are four basic types of digestive systems: monogastric, avian, ruminant, and pseudo-
ruminant. To select the proper type of feed for animals, knowledge of these four different types of
digestive systems is critical.

Types of digestive system and parts:

a. Non-ruminants:
1. Monogastric or Simple stomach (i.e. Pigs)
2. Modified simple stomach (i.e. Avian)
b. Ruminants
c. Pseudo-ruminant

Monogastric or Simple stomach parts:

✓ Mouth
✓ Esophagus
✓ Stomach
✓ Small intestine
- Duodenum
- Jejunum
- Ileum
✓ Large intestine
- Cecum
- Colon
- Rectum
- Anus
Functions:
✓ Mouth - is where food is chewed into smaller pieces (mechanical digestion) and mixed with
saliva to moisten so that it is easier to swallow. Also, salivary amylase is added for initial
breakdown (chemical digestion) of nutrient components.
✓ Esophagus - a tube which carries the food from the mouth to the stomach with series of
muscle contractions pushes the food toward the stomach.
✓ Stomach – this organ is responsible for storage, major chemical breakdown of nutrients, gastric
juices secretion mixed with the digested food including hydrochloric acid and digestive
enzymes, and then passing the digesta into the small intestine.
✓ Small intestine - The small intestine is the major site of nutrient absorption and is divided
into three sections.
- Duodenum – is the portion of the small intestine that ducts from the pancreas
and the liver (gall bladder in located). Where they mix with bile from the
gallbladder and pancreatic juices from the pancreas. The absorption of vitamins,
minerals, and other nutrients begins in the duodenum.

The pancreas is involved with both exocrine and endocrine excretions. This
means the pancreas is responsible for secretion of insulin and glucagon in
response to high or low glucose levels in the body, respectively. In addition, it
has exocrine functions of secreting digestive enzymes and sodium bicarbonate
(provide alkalinity).

Gall bladder where bile is stored secret the bile salts, which are the active
portion of bile in the digestion process, primarily assist in the digestion and
absorption of fat and also help with absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

- Jejunum and Ileum - These portions of the small intestine involve both the
further breakdown and absorption of nutrients.

Absorption of nutrients occurs in the area of the intestine termed ‘brush border’,
or the intestinal mucosa. The intestinal mucosa is comprised of finger-like
projection called villi.

✓ Large intestine - The large intestine or hindgut encompasses four main sections.
- Cecum - the digesta from the small intestine passes into the caecum, with two
sections. First a section that has a blind end, where material cannot pass though
and the second portion where it connects to the colon. The microbial digestion of
soluble and insoluble carbohydrates takes place and aids in the digestions of
fibrous materials.
- Colon – major absorption of water, synthesis of certain vitamins, and the
collection of waste materials or feces. With the majority of water removed, the
digesta is condensed into a semi-solid material and is passed out of the rectum
and anus.
- Rectum - the rectum is surrounded by large bands of muscles which help to
move digestive wastes (feces) out of the body.
- Anus - the anus is an opening through which undigested food passes out of the
body.
Modified simple stomach

✓ Beak/Bill – projecting mouth parts of the chicken, the food picked up by the beak and enters
the mouth.

✓ Esophagus
✓ Crop – a pouch in the esophagus that provides the capacity to hold food before moving it on
to the stomach before further digestion commences. During storage ingested food are
moistened.

✓ Proventiculus - also known as the “true stomach” is the glandular stomach where digestion
primarily begins. Hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes, such as pepsin, are added to the
feed and begin to break it down more significantly than the enzymes secreted by the salivary
glands.

✓ Gizzard – aka, “ventriculus” the muscular stomach or gizzard is located immediately after the
proventriculus. It has a flattened, rounded shape somewhat like a convex lens, with one side
slightly larger than the other with glistening tendonous layer inside. This is serve as the teeth
of the chicken by grinding ingested particles into smaller sizes.

✓ Small intestine
- Duodenum
- Jejunum
- Ileum
✓ Ceca
✓ Colon/large intestine
✓ Cloaca - The cloaca is a common space that collects the waste and opens into the outside of
the body. The outer opening is commonly referred to as the Vent.
Ruminant

✓ Mouth
✓ Esophagus
✓ Stomach
- Rumen – aka. “paunch”. The first and largest section of the stomach is the rumen.
The rumen contains millions of bacteria and other microbes that promote
fermentation, thus also termed as fermentation vat, which breaks down
roughages. In the rumen, solid feed is mixed and partially broken down which is
termed as “cud”.

Rumen is lined with papilla which increase surface area for absorption.

- Reticulum - The reticulum is the second segment of the stomach. From the rumen
the cud is push into the reticulum. The smaller digested particles move into the
omasum while the larger particle will be regurgitated (4 phases of rumination).

The reticulum is a small pouch on the side of the rumen that traps foreign
materials, such as wire, nails, and so forth. The ingest metal or sharp object remain
here to prevent injury to the digestive system, thus commonly resulted to
“hardware disease”.

Reticulum has the honey comb texture and it traps/collects heavy objects
consumed by the animal.
 4 phases of rumination
o Regurgitation – during rumination, the cud is regurgitated and send back to
the mouth to undergo reinsalivation.
o Reinsalivation – mixing the cud with more saliva.
o Remastication – is the means of chewing the cud again.
o Reswalloing – is to send the cud with smaller particle size.

- Omasum - The omasum is the third compartment of the stomach. The omasum
makes a grinding action on the feed and removes some of the water from the
feed.

It contains folds that aid in reducing particle size of the cud by grinding together.
Omasum has a many plies structure that absorbs water and other substances from
digestive contents.

- Abomasum - The abomasum is the fourth compartment of the stomach. The

abomasum is also referred to as the true stomach because it is similar to the
stomach in monogastric animals where there are also gastric juices added to aid
the digestion.
Calf digestive system:

In the calf digestive system, the rumen, reticulum and omasum remain undeveloped at birth
and during the first few weeks of life. The calf’s largest stomach compartment is the abomasum. At
this stage of life, the rumen doesn’t function and thus some feeds that mature cows can digest, calves
cannot.

Abomasum is 2–4 liters in size, it secretes enzymes that digest milk, providing the calf with
energy and protein for growth. Eventually, the Rumen develop and becomes dominant in mature
cattle, with 150–200 liter in size, where rumen microbial enzymes do the digestion of the feed
consumed.

During nursing or bucket feeding milk bypasses the rumen and directly enters the abomasum
via the esophageal groove. Suckling reflex action (e.g. when the calf nurses) closes the groove to form
a tube-like structure. This prevents milk or milk from entering the rumen.
Pseudo-ruminant

A pseudo-ruminant is an animal that eats large amounts of roughage but does not have a
stomach with several compartments. The digestive system does some of the same functions as those
of ruminants. For example, in the horse, the cecum ferments forages.

An animal with a pseudo-ruminant digestive system can utilize large amounts of roughages
because of the greatly enlarged cecum and large intestine, which provide areas for microbial digestion
of fiber. Pseudo-ruminants often eat forages as well as grains and other concentrated feeds. Besides
horses, examples of pseudo-ruminants are rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters