The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of five dietary concentrate levels (25.0, 37.5, 50.0, 62.5, and 75.0%) on intake and the total and partial apparent digestibilities of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), total carbohydrates (CHO) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF). Five rumen, abomasum and ileum fistulated F1 Limousin x Nellore bulls, with average initial weight of 279 kg were used, in a 5 x 5 Latin square design, with five treatments, five experimental periods and five animals. Each experimental period lasted 14 days - 10 days for animals adaptation to the diet and four days for feces, and abomasum and ileum digesta collection. Chromium oxide was used as indicator, in two doses of 10 g/day, to measure nutrient flows in the digestive tract. The ether extract and TDN intakes increased and of the NDF linearly decreased with the increase of dietary concentrate levels. The increment of concentrate levels in DM linearly increased the apparent total digestibilities of the DM, OM, CP, and CHO. The apparent total NDF digestibility and the apparent ruminal digestibilities of DM, OM, CP, CHO and FDN were not influenced by the dietary concentrate levels, with means of 45.91, 54.45, 64.67, -9.92, 79.29, and 95.90%, respectively. The increase of dietary concentrate levels did not affect the local of nutrients digestion.
bovine; concentrate; intake; digestibility
