Effects of Level and Degradability of Dietary Protein on Ruminal Fermentation and Concentrations of Soluble Non-ammonia Nitrogen in Ruminal and Omasal Digesta of Hanwoo Steers

Four ruminally fistulated Hanwoo steers were used to determine the effects of level and degradability of dietary protein on ruminal fermentation, blood metabolites and concentration of soluble non-ammonia nitrogen (SNAN) in ruminal (RD) and omasal digesta (OD). Experiments were conducted in a 4x4 Latin square design with a 2x2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Factors were protein supplements with two ruminal crude protein (CP) degradabilities, corn gluten meal (CGM) that was low in degradability (rumen-degraded protein (RDP), 23.4% CP) or soybean meal (SBM) that was high in degradability (RDP, 62.1% CP), and two feeding levels of CP (12.2 or 15.9% dry matter). Ruminal fermentation rates and plasma metabolite concentrations were determined from the RD collected at 2-h intervals and from the blood taken by jugular puncture, respectively. The SNAN fractions (free amino acid, peptide and soluble protein) in RD and OD collected at 2-h intervals were assessed by ninhydrin assay. Mean ruminal ammonia concentrations were 40.5, 74.8, 103.4 and 127.0 mg/L for low CGM, high CGM, low SBM and high SBM, respectively, with statistically significant differences (p