[The regulation of feed intake in ruminants]

As in monogastric species, food intake in ruminants is regulated from meal to meal. The prandial stimulation of taste receptors and gastrointestinal chemo- and mechanoreceptors as well as hepatic chemoreceptors contributes to satiety. All these receptors are apparently connected with the brain by vagal afferents. A physiological satiety function of prandially released gastrointestinal and pancreatic hormones in ruminants is uncertain. Food stimuli affect feeding also through autonomic reflexes which regulate reticulo-rumen motility. All informations from the periphery are finally integrated in the hypothalamus. The exact role of the various neurotransmitters and neuropeptides involved in the control of feeding is as yet largely unknown.