Table 8.

Effects of dietary addition of Echinacea purpurea polysaccharides (EP) on nutrient metabolic rate of broilers (%).

Items	Age, d	Groups1				SEM	P-value
		CON	EPL	EPM	EPH		ANOVA	Linear	Quadratic	EPs × age
DM	21	92.7b	92.5bB	95.5a	95.3a	0.458	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
	42	95.5b	96.4aA	95.8ab	96.1ab	0.119	0.020	0.491	0.479
CP	21	72.6	77.0	75.2	75.6	0.973	0.481	0.498	0.537	0.722
	42	78.6	80.3	77.6	79.0	0.668	0.599	0.768	0.952
EE	21	75.0bA	82.8aA	83.2aA	80.7aA	0.992	0.001	0.083	<0.001	0.450
	42	68.5cB	77.8aB	76.7abB	71.7bcB	1.052	<0.001	0.571	<0.001
Ash	21	34.5c	41.3bB	47.8a	42.3ab	1.289	<0.001	0.011	<0.001	0.009
	42	35.6b	48.3aA	41.0ab	38.6ab	1.643	0.020	0.903	0.122
CF	21	27.1c	42.8aB	34.8bB	27.3cB	1.771	<0.001	0.439	0.003	0.018
	42	36.4b	51.6aA	52.9aA	50.2aA	2.135	0.005	0.038	0.003
Ca	21	51.8bB	65.0aB	63.1a	63.6a	1.519	<0.001	0.020	0.002	0.187
	42	58.4cA	70.5aA	67.3ab	63.5b	1.271	<0.001	0.467	0.003
P	21	77.0A	79.5A	79.0	76.9A	0.518	0.146	0.716	0.078	0.274
	42	70.6bB	76.8aB	77.3a	71.8abB	0.938	0.007	0.810	0.002
ME	21	80.0B	81.7B	81.9	82.4	0.411	0.190	0.052	0.112	0.077
	42	82.4bA	85.5aA	83.5ab	82.7b	0.387	0.006	0.535	0.059

DM = dry matter; CP = crude protein; EE = ether extract; Ash = crude ash; CF = crude fiber; ME = metabolizable energy; CON = control; SEM = standard error of the mean.

Different lowercase letter superscripts in the same row indicate significant differences among EP addition levels (0.0, 0.3%, 0.6%, and 0.9%) (P < 0.05). Different uppercase letter superscripts within the same column indicate significant differences between age stages (21 and 42 d) (P < 0.05); EPs × age denotes the interaction between EP addition levels and ages.

¹CON, EPL, EPM, and EPH, represent EP addition levels of 0.0, 0.3%, 0.6%, and 0.9% in the diet, respectively (n = 6).