The chemical reactions and pathways resulting in the breakdown of a short-chain fatty acid. A short-chain fatty acid has an aliphatic tail containing fewer than 6 carbons.
Comment:
While there is not universal consensus on the lengths of short-, medium-, long- and very-long-chain fatty acids, the GO uses the definitions in ChEBI (see CHEBI:26666, CHEBI:59554, CHEBI:15904 and CHEBI:27283).