Table 4.

Morphological traits and relative asymmetry (RA) of bilateral morphological lengts of male broiler chicks exposed to in ovo L- carnitine injection

	Chick length	Body mass index	Head diameter	Beak length	Face laength	Middle toe length	Shank length	RA of bilateral lengts
	cm	g/cm2	mm	mm	mm	mm	mm	Face	Middle toe	Shank
Day, 0
C	17.82 ± 0.13	0.15 ± 0.00	17.29 ± 0.32	6.40 ± 0.13a	14.15 ± 0.20a	16.00 ± 0.23a	17.38 ± 0.24	1.47 ± 0.45	1.72 ± 0.05	1.58 ± 0.26a
IOPW	17.94 ± 0.13	0.14 ± 0.00	16.46 ± 0.31	5.86 ± 0.12b	13.03 ± 0.19b	14.41 ± 0.21b	17.00 ± 0.23	1.22 ± 0.42	2.33 ± 0.47	0.61 ± 0.25b
IOPW + L-car	17.78 ± 0.13	0.15 ± 0.00	16.72 ± 0.31	5.94 ± 0.14b	12.81 ± 0.19b	13.72 ± 0.21c	16.79 ± 0.22	1.48 ± 0.42	2.23 ± 0.47	0.86 ± 0.25ab
P value	0.683	0.116	0.203	0.012	0.002	0.001	0.212	0.888	647	0.052
Day, 3
C	22.38 ± 0.35a	0.17 ± 0.01	18.72 ± 0.24	6.73 ± 0.09	13.79 ± 0.18	16.36 ± 0.30a	20.22 ± 0.13	0.96 ± 0.03	0.76 ± 0.02	0.73 ± 0.02
IOPW	20.62 ± 0.35b	0.17 ± 0.01	18.60 ± 0.34	6.33 ± 0.13	13.78 ± 0.25	15.18 ± 0.42b	19.71 ± 0.18	1.01 ± 0.05	0.64 ± 0.03	0.82 ± 0.02
IOPW + L-car	21.20 ± 0.35b	0.18 ± 0.01	18.88 ± 0.34	6.62 ± 0.13	14.24 ± 0.25	15.09 ± 0.42b	20.02 ± 0.18	1.39 ± 0.04	0.98 ± 0.03	0.75 ± 0.02
P value	0.011	0.695	0.846	0.085	0.316	0.034	0.109	0.749	0.762	0.964
Day, 7
C	26.36 ± 0.34	0.26 ± 0.01	20.25 ± 0.38	8.08 ± 0.15	15.19 ± 0.26	20.09 ± 0.29	23.54 ± 0.22	1.08 ± 0.03a	0.68 ± 0.02	0.32 ± 0.02
IOPW	25.67 ± 0.38	0.24 ± 0.01	20.33 ± 0.42	8.27 ± 0.15	14.51 ± 0.26	19.62 ± 0.33	23.07 ± 0.22	0.83 ± 0.03b	0.77 ± 0.02	0.47 ± 0.02
IOPW + L-car	26.10 ± 0.34	0.24 ± 0.01	19.78 ± 0.38	8.06 ± 0.15	15.31 ± 0.26	20.45 ± 0.29	23.54 ± 0.22	0.41 ± 0.03c	0.59 ± 0.02	0.74 ± 0.02
P value	0.438	0.413	0.579	0.607	0.147	0.219	0.306	0.032	0.567	0.292

^abcDifferent superscript means differ significantly p < 0.05

C Control, non—injection group, IOPW In ovo pure water injection group, IOPW + L-car In ovo L-carnitine injection group added pure water