Concept
Ruminant
Related concepts (33)
Regurgitation (digestion)
Regurgitation is the expulsion of material from the pharynx, or esophagus, usually characterized by the presence of undigested food or blood. Regurgitation is used by a number of species to feed their young. This is typically in circumstances where the young are at a fixed location and a parent must forage or hunt for food, especially under circumstances where the carriage of small prey would be subject to robbing by other predators or the whole prey is larger than can be carried to a den or nest.
Short-chain fatty acid
Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are fatty acids of two to six carbon atoms. The SCFAs lower limit is interpreted differently, either with 1, 2, 3 or 4 carbon atoms. Derived from intestinal microbial fermentation of indigestible foods, SCFAs in human gut are acetic, propionic, and butyric acid. They are the main energy source of colonocytes, making them crucial to gastrointestinal health. SCFAs all possess varying degrees of water solubility, which distinguishes them from longer chain fatty acids that are immiscible.
Asparagopsis taxiformis
Asparagopsis taxiformis (red sea plume or limu kohu), formerly A. sanfordiana, is a species of red algae, with cosmopolitan distribution in tropical to warm temperate waters. Researchers have demonstrated that feeding ruminants a diet containing 0.2% A. taxiformis seaweed reduced their methane emissions by nearly 99 percent. Like many red algae, A. taxiformis has a haplodiplophasic lifecycle, with each phase morphologically distinct.