Table 8.

Tibia bone characteristics of broilers fed nutritionally adequate (PC) and downspec (NC) wheat based diets supplemented with increasing levels of phytase (d 24).

Treatments	Tibia bone characteristics
	Ash, %	Length, mm	Ash weight, g	Diameter, mm
Diets
NC	49.4	71.4b	1.36	6.1
PC	50.6	72.8a	1.48	6.2
SEM	0.23	0.31	0.02	0.07
Phytase, FTU/kg
0	48.3	70.6b	1.30	6.2
500	50.0	72.5a	1.37	6.1
1,000	50.5	73.0a	1.52	6.3
1,500	51.0	72.2ab	1.47	6.1
SEM	0.33	0.45	0.04	0.10
Dietary treatments
NC + 0 FTU/kg of phytase	46.3b	69.0	1.15b	6.2
NC + 500 FTU/kg of phytase	49.5a	71.5	1.33ab	5.9
NC + 1,000 FTU/kg of phytase	50.6a	72.9	1.52a	6.3
NC + 1,500 FTU/kg of phytase	51.0a	72.1	1.42a	6.0
PC + 0 FTU/kg of phytase	50.2a	72.2	1.45a	6.2
PC + 500 FTU/kg of phytase	50.5a	73.5	1.42a	6.3
PC + 1,000 FTU/kg of phytase	50.5a	73.1	1.53a	6.3
PC + 1,500 FTU/kg of phytase	51.1a	72.3	1.51a	6.2
SEM	0.47	0.63	0.05	0.14
P-value
Diets	<0.001	<0.01	<0.001	NS
Phytase	<0.001	<0.01	<0.001	NS
Diet × phytase	<0.001	NS	<0.05	NS

^a,b Means in the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.01).