Digestion In Chicken Essay

DIGESTION IN POULTRY ( CHICKEN )

Poultry is categorized in ominivours and regarded to have simple stomach so it's included in monogastrics.

Digestive organs and digestion:

Beak/Mouth:

Chicken obtains feed by using its beak, its the main prehensile organ in poultry birds.Food picked up by the beak enters the mouth. Chickens do not have teeth, so they cannot chew their food. However,the mouth contains glands that secrete saliva, which wets the feed to make it easier to swallow. Also, the saliva contains enzymes,such as amylase, that start the digestion process. The chicken uses its tongue to push the feed to the back of the mouth to be swallowed.

Esophagus:

The esophagus is a flexible tube that connects the mouth with the rest of the digestive tract. It carries food from the mouth to the crop and from the crop to the proventriculus.

Crop ( Ingluvius ):

The crop is an out-growth of the esophagus and is located just outside the body cavity in the neck region. Swallowed feed and water are stored in the crop until they are passed to the rest of the digestive tract. When the crop is empty or nearly empty, it sends hunger signals to the brain so that the chicken will eat more. Although the digestive enzymes secreted in the mouth began

Often referred to as the mechanical stomach, the gizzard is made up of two sets of strong muscles that act as the bird's teeth and has a thick lining that protects those muscles. When allowed to free-range, chickens typically eat small stones. The acidic environment in the proventriculus softens the stones, and then the strong muscles of the gizzard grind them into tiny pieces. The stones remain in the gizzard until they are grind into pieces small enough to pass to the rest of the digestive tract. Chickens that eat whole grains or chickens kept on pasture that do not consume enough pebbles with the forage typically require a supplementation of grit which aids