Processo digestivo em ruminantes e tecnologias de monitoramento utilizadas em rebanhos leiteiros

Abstract

Cattle are ruminant herbivores with great productive capacity due to a highly efficient digestive system adapted to degrade and take advantage of complex compounds, such as plant structural carbohydrates. The fermentative capacity present in their digestive tract comes from the colonization of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and protozoa that transform ingested food into substrates for energy production, while the regulation of consumption comes from environmental and physiological factors, involving the central nervous system and hormone production. The decision to consume or refuse food will be based on sensory perception and metabolic demand. Management errors and diseases are evidenced when there is a decrease in food production and consumption. These can be preemptively corrected with the use of animal monitoring technologies to predict drops in production. As an example of these technologies, animal monitoring collars evaluate rumination, activity, idleness and panting for 24 hours, establishing individual curves and notifying when the animal demonstrates alterations and, based on this diagnosis, it is possible to identify alterations due to environmental or physiological factors. Other technologies such as intelligent consumer feeders allow individual assessment and help identify the quality of the diet offered. Thus, the use of animal monitoring systems, combined with knowledge of their physiology, provides a more efficient breeding system with better animal welfare.