小型食草动物的结肠分离机制及其食粪行为

根据食草动物发酵部位的不同 ,动物对食物的消化方式一般分为前肠发酵和后肠发酵 ,这些动物分别称为前肠发酵动物和后肠发酵动物。大型后肠发酵动物 (体重 >2 5ｋｇ)的主要发酵部位是前结肠 ,Ｈｕｍｅ和Ｗａｒｎｅｒ[12 ] 称之为“结肠发酵动物” ;小型后肠发酵动物 (体重 <10ｋｇ)的主要发酵部位是盲肠 ,称之为“盲肠发酵动物”[12 ] 。多数食草动物都不能依靠自身的消化酶完全消化纤维食物 ,而植物的大部分结构和营养贮存部位都含有大量的纤维素和半纤维素 ,动物自身不易消化这些化合物 ,只能通过与某些微生物 (细菌、真菌等 )共生 ,使得…     

哺乳动物消化道内食物滞留时间的影响因素

食物通过消化道的速率是消化道功能的一个重要量度.影响通过率的因素很多,往往是许多因素相互作用以控制通过率,同时通过率又影响消化道的许多功能.通过率是指单位消化道内容物经混合、消化、发酵和吸收等过程后滞留在消化道中的时间量度,所以通常用平均滞留时间(mean retention time,MRT)来描述食物在整个消化道或每个器官中的通过率(passage rate).所谓平均滞留时间是指消化道内容物在消化道的可吸收部位开始消化到残渣排出所需要的时间[1].Blaxter等[2]提出用如下公式计算平均滞留时间:     

高纤维食物对黄毛鼠摄食和消化的影响

动物的消化生理特征和消化对策可决定其营养生态位。为揭示黄毛鼠适应高纤维食物的消化对策,在高纤维食物饲喂10 d和20 d时,以食物平衡法测定摄食量、粪便量及相应的能量学参数。在取食高纤维食物10 d时,摄食量无显著变化,但粪便量显著增加,消化率显著下降;至20 d时,摄食量显著增加,消化率仍低于对照组,但消化能与对照组无差异。高纤维组动物的体重在第10 d时显著下降,但在第20 d时未进一步下降。该结果表明,黄毛鼠能够通过增加摄食量和降低消化率的消化对策适应高纤维食物,此外,降低体重使总能量需求减少,也是其适应低质量食物的对策之一。     

化学反应器理论与食草动物的消化对策

动物的消化道结构直接决定动物从食物中获得能量和营养物质的速率。最优消化道结构和消化对策是动物充分利用食物中的营养物质同时使能量净获得速率最大的决定因素。利用化学反应器模型及理论可以定量地描述动物的消化过程,阐述动物采取的消化对策和分析食物的消化动力等。章综述了化学反应器理论在食草消化对策中可能的应用。包括理想的化学反应器模型、食草动物的类型、消化对策以及化学反应器理论的局限性等几个方面。     

草食性小型哺乳动物的食粪行为

食粪行为广泛存在于草食性中小型哺乳动物中,是特指动物取食由盲肠内容物所形成的粪便的行为。这些动物具有特殊的结肠分离机制,能够产生两种不同的粪便。食粪行为延长了食物在消化道中的平均滞留时间;提高了对高纤维食物的消化率;弥补了食物中氨基酸和维生素的缺乏,满足了动物对这些营养物质的需求;是动物消化过程中的一个特殊组成部分。食粪行为的节律性是动物对取食和食粪的风险权衡的结果。食粪行为的发展是与动物草食性的特点紧密相关的,是动物对身体较小、食物质量低和天敌威胁等不利因素适应的结果。本对这些方面的研究进展进行了综述。     

中华真地鳖低龄若虫消化道结构及取食习性

解剖喂食不同饲料中华真地鳖EupolyphagasinensisWalker的低龄若虫 ,结果表明 ,低龄若虫消化道与成虫消化道结构相同 ,具有胃盲囊和马氏管 ;嗉囊、中肠和后肠分别占消化道总长的比率与中龄若虫相同 ,具有消化食物的能力。观察消化道各部分的滞留物变化情况 ,发现 1龄若虫取食了饲养土中的腐殖质和配合饲料 ,表明孵化后的若虫需要喂食以满足营养需要。     

动物及其肠道菌群的协同进化研究

动物自身合成一些关键营养物质的能力缺失,转而依赖体内的共生物来完成相应功能,如动物体内共生细菌能帮助宿主从食物中提取营养物质,并能合成一些关键代谢反应的化合物。结合国内外在动物及其肠道菌群的协同进化的研究进展,从三个方面进行了归纳:(1)动物及其肠道微生物组成与功能的协同进化研究;(2)动物行为与肠道微生物的关系;(3)共生肠道微生物在人类或动物自身消化食物、营养获取、健康和疾病方面发挥的重要作用。     

放牧对草地枯落物分解和土壤动物群落及其相互关系的影响

在草地生态系统中,枯落物作为介导土-草界面过程的重要环节,主要调控地上-地下生态系统物质循环与能量流动,其分解对土壤食物网和土壤生物营养结构具有显著影响。土壤动物是枯落物与土壤之间物质循环与能量流动的重要媒介,是枯落物分解与养分释放过程的主要调节者。近年来,国内外学者对枯落物分解与土壤动物多样性的研究逐步深入,取得大量的研究成果。本文通过综述国内外文献,从放牧对枯落物分解过程的影响、放牧对土壤动物的影响及放牧对枯落物分解与土壤动物关系的影响等三个方面,总结分析了放牧通过采食、践踏和排泄行为改变枯落物分解,间接影响土壤动物多样性,从而降低了土壤微食物网的复杂性。另外,食草动物对草地枯落物分解和土壤动物关系的影响复杂,且这种关系往往对放牧强度、放牧季节、家畜种类等做出响应,进而会影响到整个生态系统的结构和功能。     

闽南渔场主要游泳动物时空生态位特征及其影响因素

根据2019—2021年在闽南渔场进行的秋季、冬季、春季和夏季四个航次定点底拖网调查资料,利用相对重要性指数、种群聚集强度、生态位宽度、生态位重叠及冗余分析对主要游泳动物时空生态位特征及其影响因素进行研究。结果表明,(1)调查海域共鉴定出游泳动物214种,主要优势种有18种,优势种存在明显的季节更替现象;夏季优势种的丛生指数和平均拥挤度较高,春季较低;(2)在时间维度上,须赤虾(Metapenaeposis barbata De Haan)生态位宽度最大(0.99), 7组种对时间生态位重叠值等于1.00;在空间维度上,带鱼(Trachurus japonicus Temminck&Schlegel)生态位宽度最大(2.57),空间生态位重叠值超过0.6的种类占71.3%;在时空维度上,带鱼生态位宽度最大(2.45),鹿斑仰口鲾(Leiognathus ruconius Hamilton)与赤鼻棱鳀(Thrissa kammalensis Bleeker)时空生态位重叠值最大(0.94);(3)冗余分析表明,底层温度和底层盐度是影响闽南渔场主要游泳动物时空生态位特征的重要环境因...     

可口革囊星虫消化道的形态结构特征

采用解剖及组织学显微技术观察研究了可口革囊星虫消化道的形态及组织学结构特征。消化道始于口,经咽、食道、游离肠、螺旋肠(上行肠及下行肠)、直肠,止于肛门,各段从内向外均由粘膜层、粘膜下层、肌层及外膜组成。粘膜层表面具微绒毛及纤毛,微绒毛增加了消化道的表面积,纤毛的摆动有利于消化道内食物或消化后残渣的运送;螺旋肠及直肠的粘膜层中均有杯状细胞,在下行肠前段与中段及上行肠前段与直肠中尤其多,杯状细胞能够分泌粘液,保护粘膜上皮,润滑食物及残渣。粘膜下层为结缔组织,肌层为环肌,外膜为浆膜。肠沿纺锤肌盘绕的特点延长了食物的滞留、消化和吸收时间,弥补了缺乏消化腺的不足。肠各段除直肠肌层较厚外,其余各段肌层薄或不明显。     

The relationship between forage cell wall content and voluntary food intake in mammalian herbivores

• 1 It is generally assumed that animals compensate for a declining diet quality with increasing food intake. Differences in the response to decreasing forage quality in herbivores have been postulated particularly between cattle (ruminants) and horses (hindgut fermenters). However, empirical tests for both assumptions in herbivorous mammals are rare.
• 2 We collected data on voluntary food intake in mammals on forage‐only diets and related this to dietary neutral detergent fibre (NDF) content, assuming a nonlinear correlation between these measurements. Generally, the paucity of corresponding data is striking.
• 3 Elephants and pandas showed very high food intakes that appeared unrelated to dietary fibre content. Only in small rodents, and possibly in rabbits, was an increase in food intake on forages of higher NDF content evident. In particular, other large herbivores, including horses, followed patterns of decreasing intake with increasing forage NDF, also observed in domestic cattle or sheep.
• 4 For large herbivores, empirical data therefore do not – so far – support the notion that intake is increased in response to declining diet quality. However, data are in accord with the assumption that most large herbivores have an anticipatory strategy of acquiring body reserves when high‐quality forage is available, and reducing food intake (and potentially metabolic losses) when only low‐quality forage is available.
• 5 Intake studies in which the influence of digestive strategy on food intake capacity is tested should be designed as long‐term studies that outlast an anticipatory strategy and force animals to ingest as much as possible.
• 6 We suggest that a colonic separation mechanism coupled with coprophagy, in order to minimize metabolic faecal losses, is necessary below a body size threshold where an anticipatory strategy (living off body reserves, migration) is not feasible. Future studies aimed at investigating fine‐scale differences, for example between equids and bovids, should focus on non‐domesticated species.

     

The maximum attainable body size of herbivorous mammals: morphophysiological constraints on foregut,and adaptations of hindgut fermenters

An oft-cited nutritional advantage of large body size is that larger animals have lower relative energy requirements and that, due to their increased gastrointestinal tract (GIT) capacity, they achieve longer ingesta passage rates, which allows them to use forage of lower quality. However, the fermentation of plant material cannot be optimized endlessly; there is a time when plant fibre is totally fermented, and another when energy losses due to methanogenic bacteria become punitive. Therefore, very large herbivores would need to evolve adaptations for a comparative acceleration of ingesta passage. To our knowledge, this phenomenon has not been emphasized in the literature to date. We propose that, among the extant herbivores, elephants, with their comparatively fast passage rate and low digestibility coefficients, are indicators of a trend that allowed even larger hindgut fermenting mammals to exist. The limited existing anatomical data on large hindgut fermenters suggests that both a relative shortening of the GIT, an increase in GIT diameter, and a reduced caecum might contribute to relatively faster ingesta passage; however, more anatomical data is needed to verify these hypotheses. The digestive physiology of large foregut fermenters presents a unique problem: ruminant-and nonruminant-forestomachs were designed to delay ingesta passage, and they limit food intake as a side effect. Therefore, with increasing body size and increasing absolute energy requirements, their relative capacity has to increase in order to compensate for this intake limitation. It seems that the foregut fermenting ungulates did not evolve species in which the intake-limiting effect of the foregut could be reduced, e.g. by special bypass structures, and hence this digestive model imposed an intrinsic body size limit. This limit will be lower the more the natural diet enhances the ingesta retention and hence the intake-limiting effect. Therefore, due to the mechanical characteristics of grass, grazing ruminants cannot become as big as the largest browsing ruminant. Ruminants are not absent from the very large body size classes because their digestive physiology offers no particular advantage, but because their digestive physiology itself intrinsically imposes a body size limit. We suggest that the decreasing ability for colonic water absorption in large grazing ruminants and the largest extant foregut fermenter, the hippopotamus, are an indication of this limit, and are the outcome of the competition of organs for the available space within the abdominal cavity. Our hypotheses are supported by the fossil record on extinct ruminant/tylopod species which did not, with the possible exception of the Sivatheriinae, surpass extant species in maximum body size. In contrast to foregut fermentation, the GIT design of hindgut fermenters allows adaptations for relative passage acceleration, which explains why very large extinct mammalian herbivores are thought to have been hindgut fermenters.     

Modelling the nutritional ecology of ungulate herbivores: evolution of body size and competitive interactions

Summary A simulation model is used to quantify relationships between diet quality, digestive processes and body weight in ungulate herbivores. Retention time of food in the digestive tract is shown by regression to scale with W^0.27, and to be longer in ruminants than in hindgut fermenters. Allometric relationships between whole gut mean retention time (MRT, h) and weight (W) were: MRT=9.4 W^0.255 (r ²=0.80) for hindgut fermenters and MRT=15.3 W^0.251 (r ²=0.76) in ruminants. Longer retention of ingesta by large-bodied ruminants and hindgut fermenters increases digestive efficiency relative to small animals and permits them to survive on lower-quality foods. Compared with ruminants, hindgut fermenters' faster throughput is an advantage which outweighs their lower digestive efficiency, particularly on poor quality foods, provided that food resources are not limiting. This suggests that the predominance of ruminants in the middle range of body weights results from their more efficient use of scarce resources under conditions of resource depletion. Considering only physical limitations on intake, the model shows that the allometric coefficient which scales energy intake to body mass is 0.88 in ruminants and 0.82 in hindgut fermenters. The advantages of large body size are countered by disadvantages where food quantity is limited, and we suggest that the upper limit to ungulate body size is determined by the ability to extract nutrients from feeding niches during the nadir of the seasonal cycle of resource quality and abundance.     

Retention of solutes and different-sized particles in the digestive tract of the ostrich (Struthio camelus massaicus), and a comparison with mammals and reptiles

Ostriches (Struthio camelus) achieve digesta retention times, digesta particle size reduction and digestibilities equal to similar-sized herbivorous mammals, in contrast to some other avian herbivores. The sequence of digestive processes in their gastrointestinal tract, however, is still unexplored. Using two groups of four ostriches (mean body mass 75.1 ± 17.3 kg) kept on fresh alfalfa, we tested the effect of two intake levels (17 and 42 g dry matter kg(-0.75)d(-1)) on the mean retention time (MRT) of a solute and three different-sized (2, 10, 20 mm) particle markers, mean faecal particle size (MPS), and digestibility. Intake level did not affect MRT, but MPS (0.74 vs. 1.52 mm) and dry matter digestibility (81 vs. 78%). The solute marker (MRT 22-26 h) was excreted faster than the particle markers; there was no difference in the MRT of 10 and 20 mm particles (MRT 28-32 h), but 2mm particles were retained longer (MRT 39-40 h). Because the solute marker was not selectively retained, and wet-sieving of gut contents of slaughtered animals did not indicate smaller particles in the caeca, the long MRT of small particles is interpreted as intermittent excretion from the gizzard, potentially due to entrapment in small grit. The marker excretion pattern also showed intermittent peaks for all markers in five of the animals, which indicates non-continuous outflow from the gizzard. When adding our data to literature data on avian herbivores, a dichotomy is evident, with ostrich and hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) displaying long MRTs, high digestibilities, and gut capacities similar to mammalian herbivores, and other avian herbivores such as grouse, geese or emus with shorter MRTs, lower fibre digestibilities and lower gut capacities. In the available data for all avian herbivores where food intake and MRTs were measured, this dichotomy and food intake level, but not body mass, was related to MRT, adding to the evidence that body mass itself may not be sole major determinant of digestive physiology. The most striking difference between mammalian and avian herbivores from the literature is the fundamentally lower methane production measured in the very few studies in birds including ostriches, which appears to be at the level of reptiles, in spite of general food intake levels of a magnitude as in mammals. Further studies in ostriches and other avian herbivores are required to understand the differences in digestive mechanisms between avian and mammalian herbivores.     

Modelling digestive constraints in non-ruminant and ruminant foregut-fermenting mammals

It has been suggested that large foregut-fermenting marsupial herbivores, the kangaroos and their relatives, may be less constrained by food intake limitations as compared with ruminants, due mainly to differences in their digestive morphology and management of ingesta particles through the gut. In particular, as the quality of forage declines with increasing contents of plant fibre (cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin; measured as neutral-detergent fibre, NDF), the tubiform foregut of kangaroos may allow these animals to maintain food intakes more so than ruminants like sheep, which appear to be limited by fibrous bulk filling the foregut and truncating further ingestion. Using available data on dry matter intake (DMI, g kg(-0.75) d(-1)), ingesta mean retention time (MRT, h), and apparent digestibility, we modelled digestible dry matter intake (DDMI) and digestible energy intake (DEI) by ruminant sheep (Ovis aries) and by the largest marsupial herbivore, the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus). Sheep achieved higher MRTs on similar DMIs, and hence sheep achieved higher DDMIs for any given level of DMI as compared with kangaroos. Interestingly, MRT declined in response to increasing DMI in a similar pattern for both species, and the association between DMI and plant NDF contents did not support the hypothesis that kangaroos are less affected by increasing fibre relative to sheep. However, when DEI was modelled according to DDMIs and dietary energy contents, we show that the kangaroos could meet their daily maintenance energy requirements (MER) at lower levels of DMI and on diets with higher fibre contents compared with sheep, due largely to the kangaroos' lower absolute maintenance and basal energy metabolisms compared with eutherians. These results suggest that differences in the metabolic set-point of different species can have profound effects on their nutritional niche, even when their digestive constraints are similar, as was the case for these ruminant and non-ruminant foregut fermenters.     

Fluid and particle retention times in the black rhinocerosDiceros bicornis, a large hindgut-fermenting browser

The mean retention time (MRT) of ingesta in the gastrointestinal tract is one of the major determinants of herbivore digestive physiology. We examined MRTs of fluids and particles in the gastrointestinal tract of six adult captive black rhinocerosesDiceros bicornis on conventional zoo diets. Fluid MRT ranged from 25–45 h and averaged 31 h. Particle MRT ranged from 28–59 h and averaged 38 h. In the six animals, both fluid and particle MRT declined as relative dry matter intake (g/kg metabolic body mass) increased. Black rhinoceroses, which are large hindgut-fermenting browsers, retained ingesta for a shorter period relative to their body size than grazing equids or grazing rhinoceros species. Our findings support the hypothesis that browsing hindgut fermenters have relatively shorter MRTs than grazing hindgut fermenters.     

Digestive strategy of the asian colobine genusTrachypithecus

The Asian colobines,Trachypithecus obscurus andT. cirstantus, eat plant-based diets containing 55–80% leaves. The structural polysaccharides in leaves and other plant parts require microbial fermentation before they can be used as an energy source by the monkeys. The major compartments of the gastro-intestinal tract ofTrachypithecus are a voluminous haustrated stomach, a long small itnestine and capacious haustrated hindgut, all of which contribute to the digestive strategy of these two species. Results of digesta marker passage studies indicate there is prolonged retention of digesta for fermentation in both the stomach and haustrated colon. The digestive strategy of these colobines is defined as gastro-colic fermentation, unlike that of other forestomach fermenters in which the hindgut fermentation is of secondary importance.     

Voluntary intake and digestibility in horses: effect of forage quality with emphasis on individual variability

Food intake is a key biological process in animals, as it determines the energy and nutrients available for the physiological and behavioural processes. In herbivores, the abundance, structure and quality of plant resources are known to influence intake strongly. In ruminants, as the forage quality declines, digestibility and total intake decline. Equids are believed to be adapted to consume high-fibre low-quality forages. As hindgut fermenters, it has been suggested that their response to a reduction in food quality is to increase intake to maintain rates of energy and nutrient absorption. All reviews of horse nutrition show that digestibility declines with forage quality; for intake, however, most studies have found no significant relationship with forage quality, and it has even been suggested that horses may eat less with declining forage quality similarly to ruminants. A weakness of these reviews is to combine data from different studies in meta-analyses without allowing the differences between animals and diets to be controlled for. In this study, we analysed a set of 45 trials where intake and digestibility were measured in 21 saddle horses. The dataset was analysed both at the group (to allow comparisons with the literature) and at the individual levels (to control for individual variability). As expected, dry matter digestibility declined with forage quality in both analyses. Intake declined slightly with increasing fibre contents at the group level, and there were no effects of crude protein or dry matter digestibility on intake. Overall, the analysis for individual horses showed a different pattern: intake increased as digestibility and crude protein declined, and increased with increasing fibre. Our analysis at the group level confirms previous reviews and shows that forage quality explains little of the variance in food intake in horses. For the first time, using mixed models, we show that the variable 'individual' clarifies the picture, as the horses showed different responses to a decrease in forage quality: some compensated for the low nutritional value of the forages by increasing intake, few others responded by decreasing intake with declining forage quality, but not enough to cause any deficit in their energy and protein supplies. On the whole, all the animals managed to meet their maintenance requirements. The individual variability may be a by-product of artificial selection for performance in competition in saddle horses.     

Comparative nutrient extraction from forages by grazing bovids and equids: a test of the nutritional model of equid/bovid competition and coexistence

Summary Ruminants are unevenly distributed across the range of body sizes observed in herbivorous mammals; among extant East African species they predominate, in numbers and species richness, in the medium body sizes (10–600 kg). The small and the large species are all hind-gut fermenters. Some medium-sized hind-gut fermenters, equid perissodactyls, coexist with the grazing ruminants, principally bovid artiodactyls, in grassland ecosystems. These patterns have been explained by two complementary models based on differences between the digestive physiology of ruminants and hind-gut fermenters. The Demment and Van Soest (1985) model accounts for the absence of ruminants among the small and large species, while the Bell/Janis/Foose model accounts both for the predominance of ruminants, and their co-existence with equids among the medium-sized species (Bell 1971; Janis 1976; Foose 1982). The latter model assumes that the rumen is competitively superior to the hind-gut system on medium quality forages, and that hind-gut fermenters persist because of their ability to eat more, and thus to extract more nutrients per day from high fibre, low quality forages. Data presented here demonstrate that compared to similarly sized grazing ruminants (bovids), hind-gut fermenters (equids) have higher rates of food intake which more than compensate for their lesser ability to digest plant material. As a consequence equids extract more nutrients per day than bovids not only from low quality foods, but from the whole range of forages eaten by animals of this size. Neither of the current nutritional models, nor refinements of them satisfactorily explain the preponderance of the bovids among medium-sized ungulates; alternative hypotheses are presented.