Gastric acid
The main constituent of gastric acid is hydrochloric acid which is produced by parietal cells (also called oxyntic cells) in the gastric glands in the stomach. Its secretion is a complex and relatively energetically expensive process. Parietal cells contain an extensive secretory network (called canaliculi) from which the hydrochloric acid is secreted into the lumen of the stomach. The pH of gastric acid is 1.5 to 3.5 in the human stomach lumen, the acidity being maintained by the proton pump H/K ATPase. The parietal cell releases bicarbonate into the bloodstream in the process, which causes a temporary rise of pH in the blood, known as an alkaline tide.
Rumen
Microbes in the reticulorumen eventually flow out into the omasum and the remainder of the alimentary canal. Under normal fermentation conditions the environment in the reticulorumen is weakly acidic and is populated by microbes that are adapted to a pH between roughly 5.5 and 6.5; since the abomasum is strongly acidic (pH 2 to 4), it acts as a barrier that largely kills reticulorumen flora and fauna as they flow into it. Subsequently, microbial biomass is digested in the small intestine and smaller molecules (mainly amino acids) are absorbed and transported in the portal vein to the liver. The digestion of these microbes in the small intestine is a major source of nutrition, as microbes usually supply some 60 to 90% of the total amount of amino acids absorbed. On starch-poor diets, they also provide the predominant source of glucose absorbed from the small intestinal contents. Under conditions of ruminal acidosis, when the environment of the reticulorumen has become too acidic (usually due to excessive fermentation of starches and sugars into VFA and lactate), microbes that favor a lower pH may start to dominate the ecosystem of the reticulorumen. This gives rise to rumen acidosis and often feed intake of the ruminant will drop.