Time required to digest grass

Range ~72 hrs
Organism Horse Equus caballus
Reference Letarov A, Kulikov E. The bacteriophages in human- and animal body-associated microbial communities. J Appl Microbiol. 2009 Jul107(1):1-13. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.2009.04143.x. p.5 right column 2nd paragraphPubMed ID19239553
Primary Source Hintz, H.F. and Cymbaluk, N.F. (1994) Horse nutrition. Annu Rev Nutr 14, 243–267.PubMed ID7946520
Comments P.5 right column 2nd paragraph: "[Investigators'] recent results obtained on horse model (Golomidova et al. 2007 Kulikov et al. 2007) are nearly opposite to the findings of Furuse et al. (1986). In horses, the cellulolytic microbial community localized in the large intestine is very complex and includes bacteria, archaea, fungi and protozoa. In contrast to rumen communities, the microbial biomass in the horse intestine is not subjected to digestion and is excreted with the faeces. The conditions in the horse gut seem to be more stable than in many other species, as the time required to digest grass is about 72 h – much longer, than the intervals between feeding and defecations (primary source)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 112505