Table 6.

Effects of feeding deoxynivalenol (DON)-contaminated diets during different growth stages on relative organ weights and density of small intestine sections in male broilers at 21 and 34 d.¹

Treatment	Relative organ weight, g/kg BW					Intestine density, g/cm
	Duodenum	Jejunum	Ileum	Liver	Spleen	Duodenum	Jejunum	Ileum
21 d
Control	7.41 ± 0.54	15.55 ± 0.88	11.10 ± 0.44	33.18 ± 1.27	0.94 ± 0.08	0.28 ± 0.02	0.23 ± 0.01a	0.17 ± 0.01
DON 1 to 14 d	7.32 ± 0.63	14.88 ± 0.43	10.59 ± 0.43	31.37 ± 1.78	0.92 ± 0.06	0.26 ± 0.01	0.21 ± 0.01ab	0.15 ± 0.01
DON 15 to 21 d	7.74 ± 0.49	15.42 ± 0.66	10.89 ± 0.67	33.43 ± 1.13	0.84 ± 0.06	0.28 ± 0.02	0.23 ± 0.01a	0.17 ± 0.01
DON 22 to 34 d	7.44 ± 0.42	16.0 ± 0.36	10.90 ± 0.25	31.60 ± 1.27	1.02 ± 0.09	0.27 ± 0.02	0.23 ± 0.01ab	0.16 ± 0.01
DON 1 to 34 d	6.84 ± 0.66	14.70 ± 0.67	11.0 ± 0.50	34.38 ± 1.37	0.89 ± 0.07	0.23 ± 0.02	0.20 ± 0.01b	0.16 ± 0.01
ANOVA	P = 0.85	P = 0.58	P = 0.16	P = 0.50	P = 0.54	P = 0.27	P = 0.04	P = 0.13
34 d
Control	5.56 ± 0.27	10.83 ± 0.59	7.71 ± 0.26	21.91 ± 1.01b	1.04 ± 0.05	0.35 ± 0.01	0.28 ± 0.01	0.21 ± 0.01
DON 1 to 14 d	5.77 ± 0.30	11.56 ± 0.35	7.89 ± 0.35	21.67 ± 0.47b	1.07 ± 0.06	0.36 ± 0.01	0.29 ± 0.01	0.21 ± 0.01
DON 15 to 21 d	5.58 ± 0.24	11.50 ± 0.36	8.56 ± 0.29	22.95 ± 0.57ab	1.06 ± 0.10	0.36 ± 0.01	0.30 ± 0.01	0.23 ± 0.01
DON 22 to 34 d	5.78 ± 0.15	11.81 ± 0.43	8.84 ± 0.39	25.24 ± 0.59a	1.03 ± 0.05	0.34 ± 0.01	0.28 ± 0.01	0.23 ± 0.01
DON 1 to 34 d	5.87 ± 0.26	11.98 ± 0.056	8.26 ± 0.28	25.28 ± 0.77a	0.97 ± 0.07	0.35 ± 0.01	0.28 ± 0.01	0.21 ± 0.01
ANOVA	P = 0.88	P = 0.41	P = 0.14	P < 0.01	P = 0.32	P = 0.46	P = 0.54	P = 0.14

^{a, b} Within a column, mean ± SE with different superscripts are significantly different (P ≤ 0.05, one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey–Kramer test P ≤ 0.05; n = 12/treatment).

¹The starter diets were fed from 1 to 21 d (0.41 and 6.62 mg/kg DON) and the grower diets were fed from 22 to 34 d (0.54 and 7.90 mg/kg DON). The DON-diets were prepared with wheat naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins.