The digestion of fatty acids in the stomach and intestines of sheep given widely different rations

Abstract

Summary: The amounts of total lipid and fatty acids consumed, leaving the stomach and excreted in the faeces were examined in 4 sheep fitted with rumen and re-entrant duodenal cannulas. Diets of high (HM1) and low (CM1) roughage content were given at 0·9 times maintenance and the low-roughage diet was also given at 1·7 and 2·3 times maintenance. With all the rations more fatty acid left the abomasum than was consumed in the food, the difference being greater on ration CM1 than on ration HM1 and increasing irregularly with the amount of the low-roughage ration fed. Of the fatty acid entering the duodenum in the chyme, 72–89% was digested in the intestine. About 80% of the increase in fatty acids in the stomach was stearic acid and most of the remainder was palmitic acid. Almost all the polyunsaturated C₁₈acids ingested in the food were hydrogenated in the stomach, and the amounts of oleic acid were also greatly reduced, although more oleic acid entered the duodenum in the chyme with ration CM1 than with ration HM1. The possible origins of the increase in fatty acids in the stomach are discussed.