Pictorial Guide to Digestion

	-- Select a topic -- Introduction Chewing and Swallowing Oesophagus and Stomach Small Intestine Large Intestine

The stomach is divided into the two sections, which have both anatomical and physiological differences.

Bacteria can be found in part of the stomach of horses and normally some fermentation occurs in the initial stages, especially of the easily available sugars and starches. This fermentation largely stops with the addition of gastric juices ie.

• In the cranial non-glandular section bacterial fermentation of the ingested feed starts. This mainly involves lactobacteria, which convert any available simple sugars or starches to lactic acid.
• This microbial activity and degradation is stopped when the gastric contents pass to the fundic gland region and mix with the acid stomach juice containing pepsinogen.