Table 5.

Effects of dietary supplementation of betaine on complete blood counts in pigs housed under thermoneutral and heat-stressed conditions measured on d 3 and 28 of ambient temperature exposure¹

		Environment
		Thermoneutral				Heat-stressed
		Betaine inclusion, %
Item2	Day	0	0.1	0.15	0.2	0	0.1	0.15	0.2	SEM	Probability3
WBC, 103/µL	3	15.5	17.3	15.3	16	14.5	17.9	15.4	15.1	0.995	D‡
	28	15.5	14.6	13.8	14.3	13.8	14.3	14.2	13.1
RBC, 106/µL	3	7.62	7.94	7.85	7.69	8.00	7.84	7.83	7.84	0.209	D* and E × D**
	28	7.96	8.11	8.14	8.15	8.00	8.01	7.70	7.61
Hemoglobin, g/dL	3	13.11	13.69	13.19	13.11	13.8	13.44	13.65	13.3	0.335	E × D** and E × B × D†
	28	13.79	13.61	13.99	13.55	13.4	13.62	13.23	12.88
Hematocrit, %	3	41.4	43.3	42.0	41.4	42.5	42.4	43.1	42.5	1.148	E × D** and E × B × D*
	28	42.6	43.1	43.3	43.3	42.3	43.4	41.5	40.0
Platelet count, 103/µL	3	419	390	385	362	380	323	381	340	37.28	B†, D‡, and Lin†
	28	358	306	348	322	377	256	341	262
Neutrophils, 103/µL	3	5.18	6.49	5.36	5.34	4.65	5.95	4.00	5.28	0.529	D‡ and E × D × B*
	28	4.23	5.60	4.52	5.25	5.00	4.30	4.08	4.14
Lymphocytes, 103/µL	3	8.73	9.00	8.55	9.32	8.88	10.25	9.89	8.53	0.800	D**
	28	9.99	7.88	8.41	7.83	7.69	9.60	8.6	7.73
Monocytes/µL	3	791	787	765	689	504	798	722	622	81.08	B†, D*, E × D†, and Quad*
	28	691	720	411	596	657	734	662	538
Eosinophils/µL	3	361	497	451	380	278	461	356	276	73.17	B**, E × D‡, and Quad**
	28	330	390	338	220	392	640	442	329
Basophils/µL	3	172	195	161	177	116	138	158	160	18.53	E × D†
	28	185	138	122	146	155	161	148	134

¹Values represent least squares means of 8 individually housed pigs.

²WBC = white blood cells; RBC = red blood cells.

³Effect abbreviations: E = environment; B = betaine; E × B = environment and betaine interaction; D = day; E × D = environment and day interaction; B × D = betaine and day interaction; E × B × D = environment, betaine, and day interaction; Lin = linear effect; Quad = quadratic effect.

^†0.10 > P > 0.05; *P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01; ‡P ≤ 0.001.