Compare The Efficiency Of Digestive System

Comparing the efficiency of digestive system.

A digestive system is the food is passed through the body separating the good part for usage and the indigestible part for waste. There are three types of digestive system, monogastric (carnivore and omnivores), hind gut fermenter and a ruminant.

Monogastric includes animals such as pigs, dog. An example of an animal which is a hind gut fermenter is a horse, rabbit and an example of ruminant is a cow.

Comparison of a carnivore and a hindgut fermenter:

The hindgut fermenter has a very similar digestive system to the carnivore but the hindgut fermenter has to digested large amounts of fibre and difficult to digest components. The hindgut fermenter is enlarged compared to the carnivores

One thing

The dog’s small intestine is split in to three parts. The first part is called the duodenum, in here chemical degradation of chime starts in here. It is caused by the enzymes which are secreted by the duodenum and the pancreas. Bile; which is produced by the dog’s liver and stored in to the gallbladder; helps to break down the fats and help to neutralise acid which was from the stomach. The second and third part of the small intestine for the dog is the jejunum and ileum. The jejunum and ileum surface area increase due to the plica circulares; this is circular folds; which carry villi. Each one of these villi’s has a capillary and a lymphatic capillary (lacteal), this absorbs the digested food through rich venous and capillary drainage of the gut. Whereas the horse’s small intestine are the major organ in their digestion system. They are 70 feet long and can hold up to 12 gallons. In their small intestine pancreatic enzymes help to digest their food. It will digest starches, digest sugars and carbohydrates. In there is also protease which help to emulsify proteins in to amino acids. The horse does not have a gallbladder like the dog does; this mean the bile constantly flows in to their small intestines. The bile helps to break down fats and to suspend the fats in the water. The food then which has be digested will be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine and carried through the blood stream to

The horse being a hindgut fermenter means is a simple single chambered stomach. The horses stomach is really small compared to the size of the animal, it only makes up 10% of the capacity of the horses digestive system. The horse’s stomach is small as the horse tends to eat small amount every couple of hours, which means they are Foragers. In the horse’s stomach the food is mixed with pepsin; this is an enzyme which helps to break down proteins; hydrochloric acids which will help to break down solid particles. Also in the horse’s stomach are bacteria which help to produce lactic acid. Whereas the cow is a ruminant which means they have a four compartment stomach. The cow has 4 chambers of the stomach theses are called rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. The cow can also re-chew its food this is also known as chewing the cud. The rumen is the largest of the four compartments; this compartment is divided in to several sacs. It can hold up to 25 gallons of water depending on the cow. The rumen acts as the storage vat for food; this is because of the size of the rumen. The rumen absorbs volatile fatty acids and some other product which digestion has increases by the good blood supply to the walls of rumens. The PH value of the rumen is 6-7. The reticulum is a pouch like structure in the front part of the cow’s body cavity. It lies very close to the cow’s heart. It has a honeycomb appearance. In here there is no enzymes