Digestive Physiology

Animal Nutrition is an advanced module examining the digestive physiology, nutrient metabolism, and practical feeding of non-ruminant and ruminant livestock.

The module is built around the functional contrast between the two digestive strategies. Learners first study the simple-stomached animal — energy partitioning, the determinants of nutrient requirements, diet formulation, environmental influences on intake and performance, anti-nutritional factors, and the nutritional disorders that follow when requirements are not met. Attention then turns to the ruminant, where the rumen microbial ecosystem, microbial protein synthesis, fermentation pathways and their end-products, digestibility and degradability measurement, and the common digestive disorders are examined in depth.

Throughout, principles are applied to the feed resources, production systems, and seasonal constraints characteristic of Rwanda and the wider East African region, so that graduates can translate nutritional theory into defensible feeding decisions on real farms.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

1.          Compare the anatomy and function of the non-ruminant and ruminant digestive tracts and explain the consequences for nutrient supply.

2.          Partition dietary energy through its successive losses and apply the resulting energy systems to feeding decisions.

3.          Determine the nutrient requirements of animals for maintenance, growth, reproduction, and production under defined environmental conditions.

4.          Formulate and appraise balanced diets for non-ruminant species, taking cost, ingredient availability, and anti-nutritional factors into account.

5.          Explain rumen microbial ecology, fermentation, and microbial protein synthesis, and evaluate how feeding practice manipulates them.

6.          Design, conduct, and interpret digestibility and degradability experiments.

7.          Recognise, investigate, and propose corrective and preventive strategies for nutritional and digestive disorders in both animal groups.

Target audience: Master’s students at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences.
Prerequisites: Undergraduate-level animal physiology and biochemistry, or equivalent.
Delivery: Online, combining recorded and live sessions, guided readings, formulation exercises, discussion forums, and case analyses.
Module leader: Dr. Jean Pierre Mpatswenumugabo.