The objective of these experiments in pigs were to test the hypotheses that 1) gut synthetic processes could adapt to additional dietary glutamate or ornithine to meet tissue needs for arginine with feeding arginine-deficient diets and 2) acute elevation of ammonium in the hepatic-portal blood leads to increased glutamine production. Arterial [117 +/- 5.3 (arginine-deficient) vs. 78 +/- 5 (arginine-adequate) mumol/L] and portal ammonium concentrations were elevated in pigs fed arginine-deficient diets. Dietary ornithine, which elevated portal-drained visceral flux of ornithine, corrected the urinary orotic aciduria, but not the hyperammonemia seen with feeding arginine-deficient diets. Concentrations or portal drained viscera fluxes of arginine, ornithine, glutamate and glutamine were not altered even though portal and arterial ammonium concentrations were increased 8- and 3.5-fold with mesenteric infusion of ammonium. It was concluded that 1) substitution of glutamate for glycine or alanine does not alter gut production of ornithine, citrulline or arginine; 2) gut citrulline production is not altered by levels of dietary arginine, ornithine or glutamate; 3) increased ammonium challenge does not lead to increased glutamine production even though peripheral ammonium levels increased over threefold; and 4) provision of arginine for tissue needs will have to be met from dietary sources, as adaptations in gut synthetic processes seem to be refractory to dietary arginine status.