Differentiate between the digestive systems of the... | WAEC SSCE - Agricultural Science - 1997 (Essay)

Question 1 Report

Differentiate between the digestive systems of the sheep and poultry. Illustrate your answers with clearly labelled diagrams.

Answer

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

Fig. 1: Digestive system of a sheep (ruminant).

Fig. 2: Digestive system of poultry (fowl).

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.

Read lesson note on Types And Classification Of Farm Animals (WAEC)

Read lesson note on Anatomy And Physiology Of Farm Animals (WAEC)

Answer Details

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.

Read lesson note on Types And Classification Of Farm Animals (WAEC)

Read lesson note on Anatomy And Physiology Of Farm Animals (WAEC)

Types And Classification Of Farm Animals

Anatomy And Physiology Of Farm Animals

View Answer

Differentiate between the digestive systems of the sheep and poultry. Illustrate your answers with clearly labelled diagrams.

Labelled diagrams of the alimentary canals

Differences between the digestive systems

Labelled diagrams of the alimentary canals

Differences between the digestive systems

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