Knowra Hindgut fermentation Hindgut fermentation Hindgut fermentation is microbial breakdown of plant material in the cecum and colon, after food passes through the stomach and small intestine. It produces absorbable short-chain fatty acids and is prominent in horses, rabbits, and other herbivores.
Cecum : A pouch at the junction of the small and large intestines that supports microbial digestion in many animals. It is a major fermentation chamber in horses and rabbits.
Foregut fermentation : Microbial digestion of plant material in stomach chambers or an enlarged foregut before the small intestine. It places microbial digestion before, rather than after, the small intestine.
Horse : A domesticated hoofed mammal whose large cecum and colon support hindgut fermentation. Horses depend on hindgut fermentation to obtain energy from forage.
Colic : A broad term for abdominal pain in horses, often associated with digestive disorders. Changes in hindgut fermentation can contribute to gas, distension, and some forms of colic.
Colon : The main part of the large intestine, where water and electrolytes are absorbed and microbes process remaining material. Colonic microbes continue fermentation after food leaves the cecum.
Ruminant : A mammal that regurgitates and rechews cud and ferments food in a specialized foregut. Ruminants can digest microbial protein in the small intestine, unlike hindgut fermenters.
Rabbit : A small herbivorous mammal that ferments plant material in its cecum and practices cecotrophy. Its cecotrophy recovers nutrients produced by cecal microbes.
Laminitis : A painful inflammatory disease affecting the tissues that connect a horse's hoof wall to its coffin bone. Excessive hindgut fermentation of starch can contribute to systemic events linked to laminitis.
Short-chain fatty acids : Fatty acids with fewer than six carbon atoms, produced in the gut chiefly by microbial fermentation. They are major energy-yielding products absorbed from the hindgut.
Rumination : The process of regurgitating, rechewing, and reswallowing food in ruminant animals. Repeated chewing helps ruminants process fiber before microbial fermentation.
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