Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T20:15:24.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Physico-chemical conditions in the rumen of Bedouin goats: effect of drinking, food quality and feeding time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

A. Brosh
Affiliation:
George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
I. Choshniak
Affiliation:
George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
A. Tadmor
Affiliation:
George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
A. Shkolnik
Affiliation:
George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Summary

In Bedouin goats maintained outdoors during the summer, fed lucerne hay and watered once daily, drinking was followed by a 35% increase in rumen fluid volume, with a concomitant drop in osmolality from 300 to 150 m-osmol/kg. When water was provided to these goats only once every 4 days, a three-fold increase in the rumen fluid volume was recorded and osmolality dropped from 360 to 80 m-osmol/kg.

Feeding, which was depressed during the hot hours of the day, resumed in the afternoon and was followed by an expansion of rumen fluid volume. This expansion occurred irrespective of drinking and was sustained throughout the night. On the 1st day of water denial it amounted to 40% of the noontime rumen fluid volume and was less pronounced during the rest of the water deprivation period. An evening increase in the concentrations of volatile fatty acids, along with a compatible increase in the osmolality and a drop in the pH, also followed the afternoon resumption of feeding.

In goats maintained on wheat straw, drinking as well as feeding time affected the physico-chemical conditions in the rumen to a lesser degree than in goats maintained on lucerne hay.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blair-West, J. R. & Brook, A. H. (1969). Circulatory changes and renin secretion in sheep in response to feeding. Journal of Physiology 204, 1530.Google Scholar
Brosh, A., Choshniak, I., Tadmor, A. & Shkolnik, A. (1986). Infrequent drinking, digestive efficiency and particle size of digesta in black Bedouin goats. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 106, 575579.Google Scholar
Brosh, A., Shkolnik, A. & Choshniak, I. (1986). Metabolic effects of infrequent drinking and low-quality feed on Bedouin goats. Ecology, Ecological Society of America 67 (4), 10861090.Google Scholar
Brosh, A., Sneh, B. & Shkolnik, A. (1983). Effect of severe dehydration and rapid rehydration on the activity of rumen microbial population of black Bedouin goats. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 100, 413421.Google Scholar
Choshniak, I. & Shkolnik, A. (1978). The rumen as a protective osmotic mechanism during rapid rehydration in the black Bedouin goat. In Osmotic and Volume Regulation, Alfred Benzon Symposium, pp. 344359. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Choshniak, I., Wittenberg, C., Rosenfeld, J. & Shkolnik, A. (1984). Rapid rehydration and kidney function in the black Bedouin goat. Physiological Zoology 57, 573579.Google Scholar
Christopherson, R. J. & Webster, J. F. (1972). Changes during eating in oxygen consumption, cardiac function and body fluids of sheep. Journal of Physiology 221, 441457.Google Scholar
Doloretz, C. & Lamed, R. (1987). Chicken manure methanogenesis. 1. Selective inhibition of acetic conversion to methane. Poultry Science 66, 576585.Google Scholar
Hungate, R. E. (1966). The Rumen and its Microbes. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Nielsen, K. (1964). Desert Animals: Physiological Problems of Heat and Water. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shkolnik, A. & Choshniak, I. (1984). Physiological responses and productivity of goats. In Stress Physiology in Livestock (ed. Yousef, M. K.), PP 3957. New York: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Squires, V. R. (1973). Distance to water as a factor in performance of livestock on arid, and semi-arid rangelands. In Proceedings of Water-Animal Relation Symposium (ed. Maryland, H. F.). Idaho: Soil Scientists, USDA-ARS-Western.Google Scholar
Stacy, B. D. & Warner, A. C. I. (1966). Balances of water and sodium in the rumen during feeding: osmotic stimulation of sodium absorption in the sheep. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology 51, 7993.Google Scholar
Stanier, R. Y., Adelberg, E. A. & Langham, J. L. (1978). General Microbiology. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar