Name: Digestion in Grass-Eating Animals
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 5 min 47 s
Description: Digestion in grass-eating animals involves the process of rumination. In this video, we will learn about the digestive system of ruminants and the importance...

Question

Describe in brief the process of digestion in ruminants.

Accepted Answer

Ruminants are referred to the grass-eating mammals including sheep, goat, cattle, buffaloes, etc. Ruminants stomach has four chambers (rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum). Such a stomach is called compound stomach.

1. As soon as the ruminants swallow the food, it enters the first chamber called rumen where it gets partially digested (converted to cud). Here the bacteria break down the cellulose.

2. The half-digested food then enters the reticulum and from here it again goes to the mouth for rumination.

3. The rumination is followed by swallowing of food, again. It now enters the third chamber called omasum, where it is further broken down into small pieces.

4. The food finally reaches the fourth chamber, the abomasum, where complete digestion occurs with the help of all the digestive enzymes.

5. The digested food, at last, enters the small intestine for the absorption of nutrients.

Describe in brief the process of digestion in ruminants.

Important Questions on Nutrition in Animals

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