Table 7.

Comparison between effects of reference diet and experimental diets supplemented with microalgae inclusion on food, gross energy and nutrient intake (dry matter, DM, basis), fecal output and characteristics, apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD, %), metabolizable energy content (MJ kg⁻¹ DM), and fecal pH, concentration of ammonia-N (g kg⁻¹ DM), and concentration of volatile fatty acids (μmol g⁻¹ DM).

	Reference	t-test
		Chlorella vulgaris	Nannochloropsis oceanica	Tetradesmus obliquus
Food intake
g/d (as-is)	315 ± 39.8	0.938	0.914	0.984
g/d (DM basis)	291 ± 36.7	0.991	0.870	0.967
Gross energy (MJ/d)	5.33 ± 0.673	0.996	0.855	0.987
Nutrient intake
OM	254 ± 32.1	0.994	0.832	0.969
CP	73.3 ± 9.26	0.919	0.864	0.958
NDF	66.3 ± 8.38	0.956	0.820	0.967
Fecal output
g/d (as-is)	290 ± 4.64	0.724	0.351	0.938
g/d (DM basis)	90.7 ± 11.91	0.993	0.336	0.945
Gross energy (MJ/d)	1.31 ± 0.186	0.630	0.583	0.787
Fecal production (%)	31.2 ± 1.85	0.984	0.139	0.853
Defecations (n/d)	2.7 ± 0.31	0.044	0.104	0.035
DM feces (%)	32.0 ± 1.63	0.452	0.010	0.416
Fecal score (1–5)	3.4 ± 0.34	0.633	0.165	0.042
ATTD	68.7 ± 1.92	0.869	0.141	0.957
DM	74.9 ± 1.72	0.312	0.716	0.718
Organic matter	70.6 ± 3.35	0.012	0.541	0.471
Crude protein	75.3 ± 1.96	0.287	0.265	0.592
Neutral detergent fiber	47.9 ± 3.20	0.205	0.492	0.660
Gross energy	68.7 ± 1.92	0.869	0.141	0.957
Metabolizable energy	12.9 ± 0.32	0.408	0.224	0.553
Fecal metabolites
pH	7.02 ± 0.182	0.007	0.019	0.005
Ammonia-N	2.54 ± 0.621	0.625	0.758	0.741
Volatile fatty acids
Total	743 ± 104.5	<0.001	<0.001	0.061
Acetate	430 ± 74.0	<0.001	<0.001	0.003
Propionate	208 ± 28.2	0.001	<0.001	0.796
Iso-butyrate	10.1 ± 1.95	0.010	<0.001	0.567
Butyrate	74.8 ± 16.75	0.010	0.033	0.236
Iso-valerate	11.3 ± 1.60	<0.001	<0.001	0.780
Valerate	3.34 ± 1.695	0.928	0.231	0.073
Iso-caproate	4.39 ± 2.047	0.007	0.128	0.548
Caproate	1.06 ± 0.406	<0.001	<0.001	0.390
Acetate:propionate	2.07 ± 0.167	0.087	<0.001	0.026