Table 4.

Effect of dietary Polygonatum sibiricum polysaccharide (PSP) on gut morphology of broiler chickens at 21 and 35 d of age.

Parameter	Dietary PSP level, mg/kg			SEM1	P-values
	0	400	800		PSP	Linear	Quadratic
21 d
Intestinal segments’ relative weight, %
Duodenum	17.81	19.79	19.47	0.511	0.249	0.192	0.291
Jejunum	39.32	38.81	39.15	0.872	0.975	0.941	0.836
Ileum	33.53	31.59	32.10	0.770	0.603	0.481	0.483
Cecum	9.346	9.807	9.277	0.343	0.814	0.940	0.533
Total, g	36.07	34.43	35.63	0.783	0.706	0.830	0.430
Intestinal segments’ relative length, %
Duodenum	14.94	14.75	15.26	0.280	0.779	0.665	0.585
Jejunum	36.27	36.34	36.65	0.360	0.915	0.700	0.885
Ileum	36.54	36.92	36.44	0.431	0.905	0.927	0.668
Cecum	12.25	12.00	11.66	0.370	0.831	0.553	0.959
Total, cm	161.4	161.5	157.7	1.731	0.625	0.412	0.623
Density	0.224	0.213	0.182	0.004	0.562	0.866	0.298
35 d
Intestinal segments’ relative weight, %
Duodenum	16.61	16.34	16.23	0.246	0.830	0.561	0.890
Jejunum	37.53	35.89	36.64	0.417	0.297	0.391	0.193
Ileum	35.90	36.71	36.52	0.381	0.697	0.540	0.567
Cecum	9.963	11.06	10.62	0.301	0.347	0.386	0.243
Total, g	45.55	45.21	45.12	0.373	0.898	0.666	0.882
Intestinal segments’ relative length, %
Duodenum	13.13	13.32	13.61	0.197	0.646	0.364	0.904
Jejunum	35.16	35.23	35.71	0.207	0.521	0.301	0.655
Ileum	36.05	35.82	34.90	0.309	0.294	0.145	0.600
Cecum	15.66	15.63	15.78	0.255	0.976	0.868	0.887
Total, cm	182.2	181.5	182.0	1.282	0.977	0.956	0.837
Density	0.250	0.249	0.248	0.003	0.961	0.784	0.975

Means in the same row with different superscripts are significantly different

¹SEM: standard error of means, Density = total weight/ total length ratio