Table 5.

Effects of probiotic supplement on cecal pH and volatile fatty acids (VFA) of growing rabbits at 10 weeks of age

Items	Sex1)		Treatments2)				SEM	p-value3)
	M	F	Control	BS	LA	BL		S	T	S×T
pH	6.47	6.53	6.51	6.52	6.48	6.50	0.08	0.059	0.763	0.094
Cecal VFA concentration (mM)
Total	42.48	41.44	39.05	41.93	44.52	42.35	3.70	0.435	0.056	0.426
Acetate	34.77	34.64	32.92	34.50	34.58	36.82	2.67	0.888	0.060	0.252
Propionate	2.31	2.12	1.86	2.27	2.39	2.35	0.52	0.297	0.177	0.732
Butyrate	5.39	4.68	4.26	5.16	5.31	5.41	1.02	0.062	0.130	0.058
Cecal VFA proportions (%)
Acetate	82.44	83.70	84.39	83.11	83.03	81.76	1.97	0.085	0.099	0.066
Propionate	5.27	5.11	4.75	5.16	5.30	5.54	1.02	0.656	0.483	0.377
Butyrate	12.29	11.19	10.86	11.73	11.67	12.70	1.57	0.061	0.173	0.010

SEM, standard error of the mean.

¹⁾M, male; F, female.

²⁾BS, control diet+B. subtilis; LA, control diet+L. acidophilus; BL, control diet+B. subtilis+L. acidophilus.

³⁾S, sex; T, treatment; S×T, sex and treatment interaction.