Ruminants as Part of the Global Food System: How Evolutionary Adaptations and Diversity of the Digestive System Brought them to the Future

Abstract

The importance of wild and domestic ruminants is evident to either habitat equilibrium or food production. Ruminants went through a series of evolutionary steps influenced by the environment and severe climate shifts, and adapted to different nutritional diets until the modern changes of the actual food demand. Evolutionary studies suggest that strict extremes of cattle and moose-type evolved from more rudimentary intermediate-type ruminants. Also, ruminants have been shown with extraordinary adaptive mechanisms of digestibility efficiency, regardless the body size and ability to regulate water in drought conditions. Incorporation of relatively high proportions of easily degradable carbohydrates in the diet of ruminants is doing more than increasing the chance of ruminal/ metabolic diseases. Nowadays, the food demand caused by the increase in human population has forced ruminant production systems to change the fiber based diet to larger proportions of grains and evolutionary responses to these new challenges will be dependent of future research. Morphology, physiology, nutrition and evolution knowledge will help to minimize injuries to ruminant health and to obtain the production efficiency required for the modern world.

The Rumen as a Health Thermometer: Importance of Ruminal Function to the Metabolic Balance in Ruminants – Mini Review

“…Recent studies have predicted that to reach the future demand of animal protein for the next 30 years, it is necessary to increase animal protein production in more than double by 2050 [6][7][8]. Recently we have reviewed ruminant adaptations and evolution throughout the centuries and the new scenario of diets provoking morphological changes in the digestion and feed behavior in domestic ruminants [9]. Hence, this new situation indicates that feeding a long-term high-concentrate (HC) diet, induces cellular damage on both ruminal and colonic epithelium in goats [10], and in genes that regulate thickness of the ruminal epithelium in cows [11].…”

“…Therefore, despite the fact that dietary changes and nutritional shifts can increase the chance of ruminal/metabolic diseases, and may cause more drastic modifications to the future evolutionary adaptations of ruminant digestive system [9,12], new approaches of evaluating ruminal behavior may be a strong marker to predict the risk of diseases and suitable herd welfare [13][14][15][16]. Hence, this review aims to provide recent information of the associations between ruminal behavior and metabolic disorders.…”

“…During the left paralumbar fossa celiotomy and after gaining access to the abdomen, it was noted that the left flank has been partially taken by a portion of the duodenum covered by an extremely fat greater omentum. Despite the fact that obese condition directly affects glucose and insulin efficiency and increase the risk of metabolic disorder, the effects of a shrunken ruminal space due to accumulated fat in the abdomen raises a red flag on ruminal adaptations due to long-term HC diets [9,29].…”

Fatty liver caused by partial obstruction of the reticulo-omasal orifice in colossal ingestion of Mangifera indica fruit on pregnant miniature cow – Case report

“…Cattle type ruminants as the cow are typically classified according its feed behavior, which is normally based on high dense fiber and low selection capability [6,7]. The interaction between, low feed selective ability and severe droughts caused by actual climate changes are reflected as an important factor to determine depraved appetite in ruminants [6,8,9].…”

“…The interaction between, low feed selective ability and severe droughts caused by actual climate changes are reflected as an important factor to determine depraved appetite in ruminants [6,8,9]. Therefore, associations of these particularities reflected in the occurrence of a pregnant miniature cow that ingested an enormous amount of Mangifera indica fruit during severe drought in northeastern Brazil, causing seed accumulation in the forestomach, limiting nutrient absorption and triggering fatty liver development.…”