Cow vs Human Digestive System
Different modes of lives create diverse feeding habits in different animals. Digestive systems have been designed according to the most conceivable feeding that can be sustained from the available food resources in the environment that animal species live. Depending on the capabilities, cow and human have developed two different types of feeding habits; thus, they have different digestive systems. Types of teeth, mouths, stomachs, guts, and the enzymes secreted are the main differences between cow and human digestive systems.
Cow Digestive System
The digestive system of cows has been developed as a primary herbivorous system that specializes with the presence of rumen. Rumen is a complex stomach that has four different regions (compartments called Rumen, Reticulum, Omasum, and Abomasum) modified to carry out four different functions. The largest compartment of the stomach is the rumen, and that contains many microorganisms to carry out fermenting processes. First, the food is passed through the mouth that has 32 teeth (six incisors, two blunt canines on the bottom jaw, 12 molars and 12 premolars). The gap between incisors and molars should be noticed in the upper jaw called the Diastema. The oral cavity produces about 20 – 35 litres of saliva in a day. The partially ground food goes into the rumen of the stomach and fermented for a while (about four hours), regurgitated into the mouth, to grind finely, and passed again into the stomach. Reticulum, omasum, and abomasum perform different types of enzymatic digestions and pass the food into the gut to absorb the nutrients into the body of the cow. The small intestine is much similar to the human gut, but it is little small. The rest of the food is passed out of the body through the rectum and anus as faecal bolus. The cow dung is usually green in colour and contains a lot of water in it.
Human Digestive System
Humans are omnivorous and have a generalized food habit, which means there is no special food type that is particularly essential to maintain the life of a man. Therefore, the digestive system is not essentially specialized, but it is a simple tract with necessary accessory glands. It starts with the simple oral cavity containing salivary glands, tongue, and teeth to taste and start the digestion of food. Then, the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine with three parts, large intestine, and anus are the major parts of the digestive system performing essential functions in food digestion, absorption, and elimination. However, the accessory glands play an invaluable role in the food digestion as humans consume a variety of foods containing various nutrients. Humans being omnivorous, there are a lot of proteins and fats being ingested and will have to be digested properly. The presence of gall bladder makes sure the digestion of animal fats from the food, as humans are omnivorous in food habit. In addition, humans do not favour to feed on many seeds, unless it is tasty or prepared by softening the hard cellulose parts because, there is no adaptation in human digestive tract to breakdown cellulose.
What is the difference between Cow and Human Digestive System?
• Humans have a longer digestive system than the cows do.
• Human system has enzymes to digest proteins but not the system of the cow.
• Human oral cavity has strong and sharp canines, but those are blunt in the cows.
• There are four canines in humans whereas cows have only two canines.
• Stomach of the cow is a complex rumen but the human stomach is a simple organ.
• Cows perform regurgitation during digestion but not humans.
• Cows produce more saliva than humans do.
• Human manure is yellowish in colour, but it is greenish black in cows.