Four buffaloes and four cattle rumen fistulated were used with the objective to study the effects of different levels of neutral detergent fiber in the diet on the digestion characteristics. The In situ degradations of dry matter (DM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of the coastcross hay and wheat meal, DM of the corn ground and soybean meal were evaluated. The digestibilities of DM, crude protein and NDF of the diets were also evaluated using a Cr2O3 as a marker. The animals were allotted to two in a 4x2 factorial arrangement with four increasing levels of NDF in the DM (54, 60, 66 and 72%) and two animal species (buffaloes and cattle). Four twenty-nine days subperiods were used, with 13 days for diet adaptation. The buffaloes showed higher ruminal DM and NDF disappearance of the Coast-cross hay and soybean meal DM than cattle, in most of the incubation times. On the other hand, the ruminal NDF disappearance of wheat meal was higher for the cattle only in the first hours. There was interaction between species and NDF levels for the DM digestibility coefficients. The NDF levels influenced the NDF digestibility coefficient and it was not noticed effects of species or NDF levels for the CP digestibility coefficient.
buffalo; cattle; digestion; neutral detergent fiber; ruminal degradability
