Le transit digestif chez les monogastriques

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Abstract
The present paper gives a survey of the advances made in the last 5 yr in the knowledge of feeding behavior (feed intake and cecotrophy), motility of the digestive tract and movement of digesta in the rabbit. The feeding behavior rhythms are described. These rhythms can be superposed with those fecal excretion (hard feces-cecotrophs). The biochemical and mechanical concomitants of these 2 types of excretion are established as well as their interdependence with food intake. The mechanisms involved in the preparation of the ceco-colic material leading to cecotrophs, as well as in the production and excretion of the latter were discussed. Various attempts to improve the nutritional efficiency of the feed by lengthening its retention time and by increasing the recycling by cecotrophy, show that in practice a favorable effect on growth is only rarely obtained. Any disturbance of the rhythms of food intake and fecal excretion is generally deleterious. Lengthening of the retention time of the feed in the digestive tract appears to be a precursory sign of diarrhea. This very peculiar phenomenon of diarrhea in the rabbit is analyzed. In this species, diarrhea is brought about by a ceco-colic hypomotility. Its determinism is considered in connection with the role of dietary cellulose.