Differentiate between the digestive systems of the sheep and poultry. Illustrate your answers with clearly labelled diagrams.
Question 1 Report
Differentiate between the digestive systems of the sheep and poultry. Illustrate your answers with clearly labelled diagrams.
Answer Details
The sheep is a ruminant herbivore, whereas poultry is a non-ruminant bird. The sheep is adapted for microbial digestion of fibrous feeds and chewing of cud; poultry is adapted mainly for rapid digestion of grains and other concentrated feeds.
Labelled diagrams of the alimentary canals
Differences between the digestive systems
| Feature | Sheep | Poultry |
|---|---|---|
| Type of feeder | Ruminant, adapted to grazing and roughage. | Non-ruminant bird, adapted mainly to grains and other concentrated feeds. |
| Mouth and teeth | Has teeth for biting and grinding food. It later regurgitates and rechews cud. | Has a beak and no teeth. Food is swallowed without chewing. |
| Crop | No crop. | Crop present for temporary storage and softening of food. |
| Stomach | Has a four-compartment stomach: rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. | Has a glandular stomach, the proventriculus, followed by a muscular gizzard. |
| Grinding of food | Food is ground by molar teeth during mastication and rumination. | Food is ground in the thick muscular gizzard, often with swallowed grit or small stones. |
| Cellulose digestion | Micro-organisms in the rumen digest cellulose and other fibrous materials. | Cellulose digestion is very limited; only slight fermentation occurs in the paired caeca. |
| Caeca | Has one caecum. | Has two caeca. |
| Terminal opening | The alimentary canal ends at the anus. | The digestive, urinary and reproductive tracts open into the cloaca, which opens at the vent. |
Food pathway in sheep: mouth → oesophagus → rumen/reticulum → omasum → abomasum → small intestine → large intestine → anus.
Food pathway in poultry: beak → oesophagus → crop → proventriculus → gizzard → small intestine → paired caeca → large intestine → cloaca → vent.
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