. 2015 Nov 30;59:10.3402/fnr.v59.27796. doi: 10.3402/fnr.v59.27796

Table 3.

Effect of different diets on food efficiency ratio, femur weight, apparent zinc absorption, zinc in serum, and zinc retention in liver and femur of rats (n=6) (DW)

Group	FER	FW (g)	ZnAA%	Zn in liver (µg/g)	Zn in femur (µg/g)	Zn in serum (µg/dl)
BPBD	0.16±0.008^a	0.55±0.009^a	16.5±1.43^a	88±2.1^a	143.8±5.4^a	107±4.8^a
BPBD+15	0.24±0.025^b	0.68±0.020^bc	45.5±1.88^b	95±3.9^a	207.9±15.0^bc	190±6.4^bc
BPBD+30	0.31±0.019^bc	0.78±0.027^cd	57.3±1.63^c	102±6.3^a	267.3±19.5^cd	211±7.5^c
MPBD	0.27±0.010^b	0.77±0.031^bcd	40.2±0.79^b	100±3.8^a	186.7±6.6^ab	161±5.3^b
P^*	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001

FER, feed efficiency ratio, calculated as BWG/food intake; FW, relative femur weight; ³ZnAA, Zinc apparent absorption.

ANOVA analysis, significant at level p<0.001.

^a–d

indicate that the values within a column for each variable that are not sharing the same superscript letter were significantly different (p< 0.05).

DW, dry weight; BPBD, basal plant-based diet; BPBD+15, basal plant-based diet with 15 µg/g zinc supplement; BPBD+30, basal plant-based diet with 30 µg/g zinc supplement; MPBD, modified plant-based diet (containing fermented cassava).