SYSTEM FOR EXPERIMENTS IN COWS

Nowadays, agricultural scientists learn about the digestive system of cattle by putting holes in cows - and the cows stay alive and well. These cows (fitted with a sealing cover called a "cannula") each have a hole into their stomach. Through this hole one can extract food caught mid-stream through the digestive system.

Fistulated cows are used to research the digestibility of different foodstuffs for cattle. One can feed the cow, then later catch the food while it's digesting to see how it's doing. Without fistulated cows, one would have to look at external factors in order to garner information about the best food for cows - none of which are as accurate as food sampled right from the stomach. Since cattle is such an important part of life (for milk and beef), it is important to feed them well.

Text from Damninteresting.







VIDEO