The digestion of foodstuffs in the stomach of the sheep and the passage of digesta through its compartments

Abstract

In any attempt to explore the overall changes which foodstuffs undergo while in the compartments of the compound stomach of ruminants, or to determine what happens there to the newly formed products and unchanged residues, certain difficulties have to be faced which are common to all investigations of the passage of digesta through these organs. Interpretation of the nature of the changes is complicated by the fact that food, water and saliva enter the rumen to mix in this diverticulum with a considerable bulk of residues from earlier feeds. Moreover, although digesta pass more or less continuously from the rumen to the omasum, through the reticulum, the contents of the reticulum may not be representative either of the contents of the reticulo-rumen as a whole, or, necessarily, of the material passing to the omasum. Absorption of some of the digestion products through the walls of the rumen and other compartments of the fore-stomachs further complicates the situation.