On our second day of work, we took a detailed look at the pig's digestive system. Due to some complications, we were forced to take a pig different than the one we had observed the day before. Our new pig was determined to be a female, and was slightly larger than our old one. Along with observations of the digestive tract came the need for some heavy duty cutting. I took a deep breath and got right to work, snapping the pig's jaw in order to peek in, and later slicing the pig open straight down the abdomen.
The inside of the pig's mouth revealed sharp teeth on both the top and bottom for chewing, as well as an air and food passage at the back of the throat called the esophagus.
Bits of food and liquid that never got the chance to leave the pig's digestive system in its life spilled out onto the table when I made the first long slice, straight from the base of the neck, down and around the umbilical chord, all the way to the top of the pig's thigh.
The umbilical vein stretches from the liver where it attaches, to the entire length of the umbilical chord and supplies the fetal pig with nutrients as it grows within its mother's womb. We snapped the vein in half, but were sure to keep track of it because it's a vital part of the pig's digestive system.
The lower abdomen. Shown here are the liver (The large brown organ). The top left coiled organ is the large intestine, responsible for water absorption in the digestive process, and the top right coiled organ next to it is the small intestine, responsible for nutrient absorption.
An image of the small intestine when it's strung out.
The micro villi of the small intestine as seen through a microscope The small protrusions in the tract of the small intestine are able to aide in absorption and are vital to the successful digestion of the pig's food.
A larger image of the liver, which functions as a storage for chemicals that aide in the chemical processes of digestion. In our pig, the liver was soft and in terrible condition, but some groups had stiff, well-rounded livers. After a short time, we removed the liver. Also note that the thumb and forefinger of my left hand in this picture are clutching the umbilical vein, which I mentioned earlier, attaches to the liver.
The mechanical breakdown of food through churning action, as well as the chemical breakdown of food by use of stomach acid is done in the stomach, pictured here.
When all contents are removed, the stomach fell flat...
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