what is fermentation in the cecum and large intestine and how does it work?
i am doing an assignment on horses digestive system and i need to know what fermentation in the cecum and large intestine is and how it works. please please help me !!
Tagged with: digestive system • horses • large intestine
Filed under: Intestines


Since horses are grazers, it takes a long time for food to be broken down. Horses have a relatively small stomach, but their intestines are long and the caecum and large intestine give the bacteria that live there plenty of time to ferment the food the horse has eaten.
Note: if you didn’t know, the caecum is the part of the large intestine "below" where the small intestine joins it (our appendix hangs from our caecum); fermentation is anerobic respiration.
Considering that F2 cross between male hemizygous for sex linked (w) and (m) mutations and females heterozygous for (w) and (m).
Would i be rite if i said it was sex linked?
or
maybe there is no genetic material to contain the genes on the Y chromosme of the male?
Verry confused on how to answer this question or if im going on the rite lines, can anyone please shed some light on this, thanks!
Look to see what bacteria are in the horses digestive system first, as they provide the fermentation process of the food the horses digest (like grass/hay will have different bacteria as they will need to have a cellulase enzyme to break down the cellulose in the fiberous plants, or like oats/grains will have a different bacteria that have enzymes like amylase to digest the sugars and the enzyme protease to digest the proteins in the grains).
Then look to see if those bacteria are in the cecum/large intestine of the horse. Remember that there are specific enzymes that the horse uses to digest the food as it passes thru each part of the GI tract. By the time it gets to the cecum/large intestine the food is pretty well digested by the horse’s own digestion enzymes. All that fiber that is left is then used by the bulk of the bacteria in the horse. You also have to remember that the horse’s digestive system will start to add bile acids/salts to the leftover food in the large intestines also, so the bacteria have to survive an acidic environment.