Animal Nutrition

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture on Animal Nutrition.

Dietary Categories

Animals can be classified as herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores based on their diet.

Herbivores

eat mainly plants or algae

Carnivores

Eats other animals

Omnivores

Regularly consume animals as well as plants or algae

What must an animal diet provide?

Chemical energy, organic building blocks for macromolecules, and essential nutrients

Essential Nutrients

Required materials that an animal cannot synthesize from simpler organic molecules and must be obtained from the diet.

4 classes of essential nutrients?

Essential amino acids

Essential fatty acid

Vitamins

Minerals

Essential Amino Acids

The amino acids that must be obtained directly from food, as animals can synthesize only about half.

Essential fatty acids

essential fatty acids must be obtained from the diet and include certain unsaturated fatty acids and animals obtain them from fish, other seafoods, nuts, grains, & vegetable oil.

Vitamins

13 essential vitamins

are organic molecules required in the diet in very small amount
Some vitamins synthesized by bacteria living in our gut
Grouped into fat-soluble & water soluble vitamins

Water soluble vitamins

Taking lots of water soluble vitamins is ok

Fat soluble vitamins

Taking lots of fat soluble vitamins is toxic

Minerals

Inorganic nutrients required in small amounts for various physiological functions.

Goiter

Lack of iodine causes overactivity of thyroid

Throid does what?

uses iodine to create hormones

Malnutrition

A failure to obtain adequate nutrition, which can manifest as deficiencies or undernourishment.

Deficiencies

lack of essential nutrients

Undernourishment

Inadequate chemical energy

Symptoms of Undernourishment

Use up stored fat and carbohydrates

Break down its own proteins

Lose muscle mass

Suffer protein deficiency of the brain

Die or suffer irreversible damage

Digestion Types

Includes mechanical digestion (physical breakdown of food) and chemical digestion (enzymatic breakdown of food into smaller molecules).

4 Stages of Processing Food

Ingestion → Digestion → Absorption → Elimination

Ingestion

The act of eating or feeding.

Digestion

The process of breaking food down into molecules small enough to absorb

Absorption

The uptake of small molecules by body cells after digestion.

Elimination

the passage of undigested material out of the digestive system

Types of Feeding Strategies

Filter Feeders/suspension feeders, Substrate feeders, Fluid feeders, Bulk feeders

Filter Feeders/Suspension Feeders

sift small food particles from water

Filter Feeders/Suspension Feeders Examples

Sponges, barnacles, bivalves, tunicates, manta rays, baleen whales

Substrate Feeders

live in or on their food source

Substrate Feeders Examples

Caterpillars, worms, many parasites

Fluid Filters

suck nutrient-rich fluid from a living host

Fluid Feeder examples

Mosquitoes, hummingbirds, ticks

Bulk feeders

eat relatively large pieces of food (that they can chew, for example)

Bulk Feeders

Most vertebrates

Ruminants

Herbivores that have specialized stomachs for fermentation, allowing them to digest cellulose.

Mechanical Digestion

is the physical process of breaking large pieces of food into smaller ones through mastication in the mouth and the churning and mixing of food in the stomach to prepare it for chemical digestion.

Chemical Digestion

The process whereby digestive enzymes break down macromolecules into smaller organic molecules that can be absorbed by cells.

Enzymatic hydrolysis

breaking of chemical bonds through the addition of water

Intracellular Digestion

uses food vacuoles/cellular organelles with enzymes that break down food

Extracellular Digestion

Breakdown of food in compartments that are continuous with the outside of the animals body.

Benefits of Extracellular Digestion

Allows for larger pieces of food to be ingested

Simple body plan/Gastrovascular cavity
Hydra

Alimentary Canal

digestive tube with two openings, a mouth and an anus
Complex Body Plan

Peristalsis

Rhythmic contractions of muscles in the wall of the digestive canal that move food through the digestive system.

Homeostasis

The process by which organisms maintain a stable internal environment, including regulation of blood sugar levels.

Vitamins

Organic molecules required in small amounts for various bodily functions; some can be synthesized by gut bacteria.

Fecal Transplants

A medical procedure where fecal bacteria from a healthy donor are transferred to restore a balanced microbiome in patients.

Insulin

A hormone produced by the pancreas that lowers blood glucose levels by promoting glucose uptake in cells.

Glucagon

A hormone produced by the pancreas that raises blood glucose levels by stimulating the liver to release glucose.