Table 8.

Rumen and cecum morphometrics of Nellore bulls finished on tropical pasture and fed a Bacillus-based probiotic

Iten	Treatments*		SEM1	P – value2
	CON	Probiotic		Treatment
Lesion scores
Rumen	0.50	0.64	0.165	0.55
Cecum	1.57	1.85	0.420	0.66
Rumen morphometric - macroscopic
Number of papillae	56.73	52.56	5.065	0.57
Papillae area, cm2	0.42	0.38	0.030	0.36
3ASA, cm2 / cm2 of rumen wall	29.13	21.51	3.012	0.08
Papillae area, % of ASA	96.22	95.57	0.412	0.27
Rumen morphometric - microscopic
Height, mm	3.87	3.94	0.296	0.86
Width, mm	0.76	0.72	0.028	0.25
Keratin layer thickness, µm	9.19	8.34	0.389	0.13
Papillae area, mm2	0.98	1.08	0.066	0.27
Cecum morphometric - microscopic
Crypt depth, mm	42.35	41.47	1.448	0.67
Number of enterocytes	19.46	18.82	0.809	0.58
Crypt depth: enterocyte ratio	2.20	2.25	0.091	0.72
Number of goblets cells	0.02	0.04	0.091	0.69
Number of disrupted goblet cells	0.02	0.04	0.015	0.25

*CON; energy-protein supplement without any additive (n = 14) - Probiotic; energy-protein supplement containing 2 g of probiotic/animal per day (n = 14). The probiotic was composed of Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis (6.4 × 10⁹ CFU/g). ¹Standard error of mean;² P-value; The significance level was set at P ≤ 0.05, and 0.05 < P ≤ 0.10 was considered a tendency.³ ASA; absorptive surface area