Ruminant Digestion
• Relationships Between Organisms
1
What is a ruminant?
• Specialized digestive
system capable of
digesting cellulose.
• Has a stomach with 4
distinct compartments
• Cattle, sheep, goats,
deer & elk.
2
Compartment Capacity
•
•
•
•
Reticulum
Rumen
Omasum
Abomasum
5% of capacity
80% of capacity
7% of capacity
8% of capacity
3
Reticulum
• Hardware stomach
• Holds foreign materials like nails
Omasum
* Muscular section that squeezes out
excess water from food products
before passing along in the digestive
process.
4
Rumen
• Largest compartment
• Storage area
• Millions of bacteria and protozoa live
here and break down cellulose into
digestible protein and carbohydrates
5
Abomasum
• True stomach
• Site of chemical digestion
• Digestive juices containing enzymes break
down food products to be absorbed by the
small intestine
6
Ruminant Digestive System
7
Types of Relationships between
organisms
• Mutualism
each helps the other.
• Commensalism
one benefits, the other
does not.
• Parasitism
one depend on the other for
essential food factor, usually
harmful to the host.
• Phoresis
the host carries the
“symbiont”
8
Can you guess the type
of relationship between
these animals?
9
Commensalism
What is the
relationship
between…
A tick and a
dog?
10
Mutalism
What is the
relationship
between…
A human and a
dairy cow?
11
Parasitism
What is the relationship between…
A lamprey and a trout?
12
Phoresis
What is the
relationship
between…
A whale
and a barnacle?
13
Vocabulary Review
Monogastric A digestive system with one stomach
compartment
Polygastric A digestive system capable of breaking down
cellulose into digestible protein and
carbohydrates. The stomach is divided into
compartments each with a specialized
function.
Ruminant
An animal with a polygastric digestive system.
Rumination Part of the process of digestion in a polygastric
system where a bolus is regurgitated, rechewed and swallowed.
14
Vocabulary Review
Abomasum
Reticulum
Rumen
Omasum
Site of chemical digestion in a polygastric
digestive system.
“hardware stomach” holding area for foreign
materials in a polygastric system.
Largest compartment of the polygastric
system, serves as a storage area.
Muscular portion of the polygastric system
that squeezes excess water from digested food
products.
15
Vocabulary Review
Mastication
The act of chewing where salivary enzymes
are added to food products.
Bacterial digestion
The bacterial and protozoa action
in the rumen of a polygastric digestive system
that breaks down cellulose into digestible
carbohydrate and protein products and
synthesizes B vitamins.
Bolus
Partially chewed food held in the reticulum
that is regurgitated, chewed completely and reswallowed.
16
Vocabulary Review
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism
Phoresis
Relationship between two organisms
where one depends on the other for
some essential food factor, often to the
detriment of the host.
Relationship between two organisms
where one benefits and the other
doesn’t.
Relationship between two organisms
where one benefits and the other
doesn’t’.
Relationship between two organisms
where the host transport the sybiont.
17