Table 4. Effect of dietary puerarin on serum immunoglobulin concentration in pigeons.
| Item | Puerarin level (mg/kg) | SEM | P–value | |||||
| 0 | 40 | 80 | 120 | 160 | ANOVA | Linear | ||
| Day 15 | ||||||||
| IgA (μg/mL) | 56.94 | 52.14 | 58.45 | 57.96 | 62.42 | 1.81 | 0.527 | 0.204 |
| IgM (μg/mL) | 151.80b | 149.93b | 164.80ab | 187.87a | 191.87a | 4.34 | <0.001 | <0.001 |
| IgG (μg/mL) | 478.96 | 490.93 | 476.94 | 490.44 | 479.98 | 9.00 | 0.983 | 0.982 |
| Day 30 | ||||||||
| IgA (μg/mL) | 46.43c | 51.54c | 52.63c | 66.20a | 59.63b | 1.44 | <0.001 | <0.001 |
| IgM (μg/mL) | 114.67b | 143.80a | 149.80a | 159.07a | 144.13a | 3.21 | <0.001 | <0.001 |
| IgG (μg/mL) | 410.22 | 413.24 | 411.87 | 418.94 | 412.75 | 4.989 | 0.989 | 0.778 |
Data represent the means of five individuals per treatment. a, b, cMeans with different superscripts in a row differ significantly (P < 0.05). IgA = immunoglobulin A; IgG = immunoglobulin G; IgM = immunoglobulin M; SEM = standard error of the mean; ANOVA = analysis of variance.