Table 2.

The effect of graded levels of whey with addition of citric acid on growth performance

Parameters	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5	P value
Initial wt (kg)	0.968 ± 0.009	0.952 ± 0.009	0.954 ± 0.015	0.951 ± 0.005	0.955 ± 0.007	0.691
Final BW (kg)	1.955 ± 0.046c	2.009 ± 0.058c	2.099 ± 0.038bc	2.218 ± 0.078b	2.401 ± 0.065a	≤ 0.001
BWG (kg)	0.987 ± 0.049c	1.057 ± 0.060c	1.145 ± 0.032bc	1.267 ± 0.079b	1.447 ± 0.062a	≤ 0.001
FI (kg)	4.373 ± 0.66	4.445 ± 0.102	4.448 ± 0.123	4.527 ± 0.181	4.219 ± 0.074	0.437
FCR	4.48 ± 0.249a	4.25 ± 0.200ab	3.89 ± 0.044bc	3.60 ± 0.166c	2.95 ± 0.180d	≤ 0.001
PER	1.358 ± 0.087c	1.424 ± 0.067bc	1.539 ± 0.017bc	1.671 ± 0.082b	2.052 ± 0.115a	≤ 0.001
RGR (%)	67.394 ± 2.349d	71.197 ± 2.766cd	74.959 ± 1.365bc	79.678 ± 3.040ab	86.035 ± 2.065a	≤ 0.001

T1, basal diet with no additives; T2, basal diet supplemented with citric acid (10 g/kg) and no whey; T3, T2 + whey powder (7.5 g/kg); T4, T2 + whey powder(15 g/kg); T5, T2 + whey powder (22.5 g/kg)

BW body weight; BWG body weight gain; FI feed intake; FCR feed conversion ratio; PER protein efficiency ratio; RGR relative growth rate

^a–dMeans within the same row carrying different superscripts are significantly different at (P ≤ 0.05)