Table 4. Morphological parameters of rumen papillae of sheep fed a grain-based diet supplemented with live yeast (LY, Saccharomyces cerevisiae), mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), and the combination of these additives (LY + MOS).
| Item, μm | Treatment | SEM1 | P | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control | LY | MOS | LY+MOS | |||
| Papillae total width | 288.80 | 296.50 | 279.90 | 283.20 | 3.44 | 0.16 |
| Connective tissue width | 53.07 | 59.10 | 55.32 | 54.19 | 2.76 | 0.62 |
| Epithelium thickness | 80.85ab | 87.26a | 73.81b | 80.52ab | 2.79 | 0.03 |
| Stratum corneum thickness | 23.66a | 22.14a | 16.51c | 19.36b | 0.63 | 0.01 |
| Nonkeratinized thickness | 57.19 | 65.12 | 57.29 | 66.72 | 1.62 | 0.26 |
1SEM = standard error mean; Means followed by different letters in the same row are statistically different according to the Tukey test (α = 0.05).