ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF FARM ANIMALS : TEACHING THE STUDENTS IN SS1

Teaching comes natural to me. I've always craved for means to pass the knowledge I've acquired over the years. I secretly prayed I'd be posted to a school (although I never wanted to be posted to a village school. I guess everything happens for a reason)

I teach Agricultural science and Prevocational studies. These are subjects that are related to nature which I have a natural inclination towards.

Last week, I thought the senior students on Anatomy and Physiology of Farm Animals

Anatomy refers to the form and structure of the body while physiology refers to the function of the forms and parts of the body.

It is very important for the farmer to understand the anatomy and physiology of farm animals because it will enable him to know more about the nutrition, reproduction and management of his farm animals.

The body of farm animals is divided into four major groups. These are

Head
Thoracic cavity
Abdominal cavity
The limbs

HEAD - The head is the upper part of the body. The major organs found in the head region includes the brain, eye, ear, tongue and nose.
THORACIC CAVITY - The thoracic cavity refers to the chest region of the body. The major organs in the Thoracic cavity includes the heart, lungs, and trachea.
ABDOMINAL CAVITY - The abdominal cavity refers to the stomach region of the body. The major organs in the abdominal cavity includes the liver, uterus, stomach, oviduct(or fallopian tube), kidney, ovary, spleen, intestine, gall bladder and pancreas.

LIMBS - The limbs include the fore limbs (hands) and hind limbs (legs). They are used by farm animals for walking.

Some of the systems which maintains the body are

digestive system
circulatory system
respiratory system
nervous system and
reproductive system

In this post, I will like to focus on Digestive system

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

The digestive system of a farm animal includes all the organs and tissues associated with the breaking down of digestion of food in the body. It includes the teeth or beak, tongue, the alimentary canal or digestive tract and all the associated glands, secretory enzymes and other body fluids.

Farm animals are grouped into two main classes based on the nature of their alimentary canal or digestive tract. These are

Monogastric or Non-ruminant animals - These are animals that possess only one stomach and they do not ruminate (i.e they do not chew the cud). In other words, these animals have simple stomach and they cannot digest cellulose and fibre properly. Examples are the pigs, rabbit and poultry birds like the domestic fowl.
Polygastric or Ruminant animals - These are farm animals which possess four stomach compartments (complex stomachs) and hence, they can ruminate or chew the cud. The four stomach compartments are rumen (the largest), the reticulum, omasum and abomasum (true stomach)
- The rumen (pounch) - It has several tongue-like projections and has a soft towel-like appearance. It is the largest and first compartment of the stomach.
- Reticulum (honeycomb) - This is lined with a muscular layer which is formed into hexagonal chamber that resembles honeycomb. It is the second compartment.
- Omasum (manypiles) - The third and smallest compartment. It has several "leaves" and laminae layers.
- Abomasum - This is the only glandular stomach. It is synonymous with simple stomach of monogastric animals. It is the fourth and last compartment of the stomach.