Ration digestion and retention times of digesta in domestic cattle (Bos taurus), American bison (Bison bison), and Tibetan yak (Bos grunniens)

Abstract

Digestive functions, digesta retention times, and plasma thyroid hormone concentrations were measured in three species of Bovidae: domestic cattle (Bos taurus; three breeds), American bison (Bison bison), and Tibetan yak (Bos grunniens), fed a pelleted ration (nitrogen, 2.62%) at a near maintenance level. Apparent digestibilities of dry matter, energy, and nitrogen components of the ration were not significantly different among animal groups except for one breed of cattle (Holstein–Friesian) which had higher dry matter and energy digestibilities than all the other animal groups and a higher nitrogen digestibility than the other breeds of cattle. Nitrogen disappearance from the gastrointestinal tract (apparent absorption) per 100 g of dry matter digested was greater in the bison and yak than in the cattle, and mean retention time of digesta in the gastrointestinal tract was 65–69 h in the cattle, compared with 79 and 78 h in the bison and yak, respectively. The longer total retention time of digesta in the bison and yak may account in part for their apparent improved nitrogen economy and greater ability to digest fibrous feed material.

Microbial Eco-system of the Gastro-intestinal Tract of Wild Herbivorous Animals

“…As the availability of natural feeds at high altitude is scarce, the animal has adapted itself to extract more nutrients from these feeds by increasing the retention time of feed in the gastro-intestinal tract. The average retention time of feed is about 72h, which is about 20% higher than that observed in domestic cattle (Schaffer et al, 1978).…”

ABS Working Paper 4 - Bison as keystone herbivores on the Great Plains: Can cattle serve as proxy for evolutionary grazing patterns?

“…Direct comparisons of digestibility found differences (Peden et al 1974;Hawley et al 1981;Schwartz and Ellis 1981) as well as no differences (Schaefer et al 1978;Plumb and Dodd 1993) between bison and cattle (including Hereford and Scottish Highland breeds). Digestion retention time was also greater in bison than cattle (Schaefer et al 1978). Additionally, many ruminal fermentation characteristics do not differ between bison and Hereford steers; bison, however, do average greater ruminal ammonia nitrogen concentrations, greater ciliate protozoal counts, and greater cell volume than cattle (Towne et al 1988).…”

Assessing the Jarman–Bell Principle: Scaling of intake, digestibility, retention time and gut fill with body mass in mammalian herbivores

“…a) OMI and MRT; b) OMI and 903 OMC; c) MRT and aDOM; d) MRT and OMC. For statistics, see (Luginbuhl et al, 1990) Pudu puda 4 1 9.1 0.299 29.9 75.2 0.232 (Conklin-Brittain and Dierenfeld, 1996) Cephalophus maxwellii 4 1 9.4 0.305 42.2 73.0 0.341 (Conklin-Brittain and Dierenfeld, 1996) Capreolus capreolus 4 >1 24.7 0.405 27.0 67.7 0.302 (Holand, 1994) Capra hircus 4 1 29.7 0.777 45.9 51.3 1.117 Freudenberger and Hume, 1992;Kennedy et al, 1992) (Foot and Romberg, 1965;McIntosh, 1966;Forbes and Tribe, 1970;Dellow, 1982;Dellow and Hume, 1982;Luginbuhl et al, 1990;Kennedy et al, 1992;Pearson et al, 2006 Jiang and Hudson, 1996) (Schaefer et al, 1978;Colucci et al, 1982;Mathers et al, 1989;Luginbuhl et al, 1994;Burns et al, 1997;Whetsell et al, 2004;Pearson et al, 2006) (Cahill and McBride, 1995) GIT-Anatomy = gastrointestinal tract anatomy: 1 = caecum fermenter, 2 = colon fermenter, 3 = nonruminant foregut fermenter, 4 = ruminant foregut fermenter; BM = body mass; DMI = dry matter intake; MRT = mean retention time of particle markers (different markers) through the whole gastrointestinal tract; aD DM = apparent dry matter digestibility; DMC= mass of dry matter gastrointestinal tract content calculated according to Holleman and White (1989; for equations see the main text) Table 3.…”