The objectives of this work were to evaluate the effects of five dietary concentrate levels (25,0; 37,5; 50,0; 62,5 and 75,0%) on the efficiency of microbial synthesis, the ruminal ammonia concentrations and pH, nitrogenous compounds balance, and the digest passage rate. Five rumen, abomasum and ileum fistulated F1 Limousin x Nellore bulls, with an average initial body weight of 279 kg, were used in a 5 x 5 Latin square design. Ruminal liquid samples were obtained before and 2; 4; 6 and 8 hours after feeding to determine the ammonia and pH of the rumen. The bases purines were used as microbial indicator, and ruminal bacteria were isolated by differential centrifugation. The passage rate was obtained by infusion of an unique chromium oxide dose of 20 g and the times were evaluated before and 3; 6; 9; 12; 24; 36 and 48 hours after the indicator infusion. The abomasum Nbact flow and the microbial efficiency in relation to the degradable carbohydrates in the rumen (CHODR) were not influenced by the dietary concentrate levels, with average values of 85,69 g Nbact/day, 41,09 g Nbact/kgCHODR and 472,44 g DMbact/kgCHODR. The maximum ammonia concentration of 17,56 mg/100mL of ruminal fluid was observed 2,77 hours after feeding. Ruminal pH linearly decreased as the concentrate level increased and was in a quadratic way influenced by the collection time. Ruminal digesta passage rate of 0,059; 0,053; 0,073; 0,068 and 0,041.h-1, for the respective levels of 25,0; 37,5; 50,0; 62,5 and 75,0% of concentrate levels were observed. The increasing dietary concentrate did not change the microbial growth in the rumen.
microbial efficiency; pH; ammonia; concentrate level; passage rate
