1. The Digestive systems of Farm Animals
Tiffany Reid

2. Answer true or false for each statement
The crop is responsible for storing food ingested by birds ______
Cattle and pigs are examples of ruminants.___
Ruminants have a single compartment stomach______
Birds use their teeth to grind food______
The digestion process ends in a similar way for all farm animals.________

3. Objectives 1. To define digestion
2. Explain the functions of the parts of the digestive system of :
monogastric digestive system
Avian digestive system
Ruminant digestive system
Psuedo-ruminant digestive system

4. Objectives (cont’d) Describe the process of digestion in:
A monogastric animal
An avian
A ruminant
A psuedo-ruminant digestive system

5. What is Digestion?
This is the process of making food absorbable by breaking it down into simpler chemical compounds in the alimentary canal.
Animals have to break down the food they eat to be able to utilize the nutrients in the food

6. Name the different classes of digestive systems found in farm animals:
Monogastric
Avian
Ruminant
Pseudo-ruminant

7. Monogastric digestive system
A monogastric digestive system has one simple stomach. Example: pig
The digestive system of a pig has five (5) main parts:
Mouth
Oesaphagus
Stomach
Small intestine
Large intestine

8. Digestion in Pigs

9. The mouth is where the food enters the digestive tract and where mechanical break down of food begins.
The oesaphagus is a tube which carries the food from the mouth to the stomach.
The stomach is the section of the digestive tract where chemicals are added to the food. These chemicals help to break down food into smaller particles of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

10. Some particles are absorbed from the stomach into the bloodstream
Some particles are absorbed from the stomach into the bloodstream. Other particles which the stomach cannot absorb pass to the small intestine.
The first part of the small intestine is called the duodenum.
Secretions from the liver and pancreas are added to the food in the small intestine. These secretions contain enzymes that complete the digestion of fats, carbohydrates and proteins.

11. Most food nutrients are then absorbed in the second and third parts of the small intestine called the jejunum and ileum.
Undigested nutrients and secretions then pass to the large intestine.
The main function of the large intestine is for the absorption of water.
It is also a reservoir for waste materials that make up the faeces.

12. Avian digestive system
This type of system is found in poultry such as chickens, ducks and geese
The main parts of the poultry digestive system are:
Beak small intestine
Oesophgus caeca
Crop cloaca
Stomach (proventriculus)
Gizzard

15. The beak is used to break up food into smaller pieces so that the birds can swallow it.
The crop is a thin walled sac for storing and soaking the food.
The proventriculus also known as a glandular stomach is a tube-like area that produces a large amount of digestive juices.
The food then goes to the gizzard. The gizzard is a muscular organ which grinds the food up into small pieces.

16. After grinding the food then goes to the small intestine
After grinding the food then goes to the small intestine. The small intestine is the site of most of the digestion and absorption of materials
At the end of the small intestine are several intestinal caeca which store bacteria which are essential in the breakdown of cellulose.
The birds digestive tract ends in the cloaca where fecal material is collected before it is expelled through the vent or anus.

17. Digestion in Ruminants
A ruminant digestive system has a large stomach that is divided into four compartments. This system is found in cattle, sheep and goats.
Parts of ruminant digestive system:
Mouth oesophagus
Rumen reticulum
Omasum abomasum
Small intestine large intestine

18. Digestive System of a Ruminant

19. Cattle swallows its food without chewing. It enters the rumen.
acts as a storage organ.
Cellulose-digesting bacteria breakdown the cellulose in the grass.
Sends partially digested grass into the reticulum.

20. Reticulum
Forms semi-liquid grass into boluses/cuds
Pumps boluses back into the mouth through regurgitation
Acts as a strainer to remove foreign material
Omasum
- receives the masticated cuds from the mouth
- Squeezes liquid out of the cuds
The liquid is absorbed into the walls of the omasum.
The remaining solids are then pumped into the abomasums.

21. Abomasum
Produces gastric juices.
Pepsin breaks down proteins into amino acids
The food materials then pass to the small intestines where most of the absorption is done. Undigested food materials then pass to the large intestine where water absorption takes place.
The remaining undigested material is then egested from the body through the anus

22. Digestive system of a rabbit (pseudo-ruminant

24. Rabbits are hind gut digesters this means that most of their digestion takes place in the large intestine and caecum.
Their diet contains large amounts of cellulose which is hard to digest. This plant material passes through the stomach until it reaches the caecum.
The caecum contains large quantities of bacteria . These help in cellulose digestion.

25. The rabbit passes out two types of faeces: hard droppings and soft black pellets.
The soft black pellets or “night droppings” are re ingested to be fully digested in the stomach.
The pellets contain approximately 24 % protein.

26. Activity
In which part of the alimentary canal absorption of nutrients take place?
What is digestion?
Name the four compartments of the ruminant stomach.
What are the major processes which occur in each compartment?
Describe the different types of digestive systems that can be found in farm animals.

27. Name 2 farm animals with this type of digestive system.