Mathematical modelling in analyses of ruminant digestive function: philosophy, methodology and application

Abstract

Research on ruminant digestion is essentially a study of interactions among host, micro-organisms, substrates and end-products of digestion. That these interactions are extremely complex is obvious. It is also obvious that progress in understanding the basis of these interactions has been, and will be, slow using traditional experimental methods. Furthermore, most of our knowledge of these interactions is qualitative and must be extended quantitatively in context with the total system we seek to understand. This is not to imply that we do not have good quantitative data regarding specific aspects of ruminant digestive function; we do. The problem is integration of available concepts and data regarding ruminant digestive function and quantitative and dynamic evaluation of these in the context of behaviour of the total system. Some years ago, we, among others, undertook the effort of learning mathematical approaches appropriate to achievement of this objective because we thought the approach held promise. Based on progress and results achieved (by ourselves and others), we are convinced that simulation modelling of digestive function is an extremely powerful technique and possibly the only approach available which enables rigorous, quantitative evaluation of our understanding of ruminant digestive function and effective or maximal use of this knowledge in the solution of animal and food production problems.