Everything about Ruminant totally explained
A
ruminant, from a physiological point-of-view, is any
artiodactyl mammal that digests its food in two steps, first by eating the raw material and regurgitating a semi-digested form known as
cud from within their first stomach, known as the
rumen. The process of again chewing the cud to break down the plant matter and stimulate digestion is called ruminating. Ruminating Mammals include
cattle,
goats,
sheep,
giraffes,
American Bison,
European bison,
yaks,
water buffalo,
deer,
camels,
alpacas,
llamas,
wildebeest,
antelope, and
pronghorn.
However, from a zoologial and evolution point-of-view, the suborder
Ruminantia includes all those species except the camels, llamas and alpacas, which are
Tylopoda. Therefore, 'Ruminant' (
physiology) isn't synonymous of
Ruminantia (
taxonomy). Ruminants also share another anatomical feature in that they all have an
even number of toes on each foot.
Explanation
Ruminants have a fore-stomach with four chambers. These are the
rumen,
reticulum,
omasum, and
abomasum. In the first two chambers, the rumen and the reticulum, the food is mixed with saliva and separates into layers of solid and liquid material. Solids clump together to form the cud (or
bolus). The cud is then regurgitated, chewed slowly to completely mix it with saliva and to break down the particle size, Fiber, especially
cellulose and
hemi-cellulose, is primarily broken down into the three
volatile fatty acids,
acetic acid,
propionic acid and
butyric acid in these chambers by microbes (
bacteria,
protozoa, and
fungi). Protein and non-structural carbohydrate (
pectin,
sugars,
starches) are also fermented.
Even though the rumen and reticulum have different names they represent the same functional space as digesta can move back and forth between them. Together these chambers are called the reticulorumen. The degraded digesta, which is now in the lower liquid part of the reticulorumen, then passes into the next chamber, the omasum, where water and many of the inorganic mineral elements are absorbed into the blood stream. After this the digesta is moved to the last chamber, the abomasum. The abomasum is the direct equivalent of the monogastric stomach (for example that of the human or pig), and digesta is digested here in much the same way. Digesta is finally moved into the small intestine, where the digestion and absorption of nutrients occurs. Microbes produced in the reticulo-rumen are also digested in the small intestine. Fermentation continues in the large intestine in the same way as in the reticulorumen.
Almost all the glucose produced by the breaking down of cellulose and hemicellulose is used by microbes in the rumen, and as such ruminants usually absorb little
glucose from the
small intestine. Rather, ruminants' requirement for glucose (for brain function and lactation if appropriate) is made by the liver from propionate, one of the volatile fatty acids made in the rumen .
Cultural impact
The
Law of Moses in the
Bible allowed only the eating of animals that had split hooves and swallowed their food multiple times, a stipulation preserved to this day in the
Kashrut. This distinction between clean and
unclean animals approximately falls according to whether the animal ruminates. The close relation to rumination is apparent in many English translations of the Bible, which use the word
cud in an expanded sense to indicate food that's re-chewed through either rumination or the process used by
lagomorphs.
Islam considers a mammal
halal only if it's ruminate.
Other uses
The verb
to ruminate has been extended
metaphorically to mean
to thoughtfully ponder or
to meditate on some topic. Similarly, ideas may be
chewed on or
digested.
Chew the (one's) cud is to reflect or meditate.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ruminant'.
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