Table 5.

Jejunal histomorphology and total blood carotenoid concentration in broiler chickens fed a corn–soybean meal diet supplemented with nucleotide-rich yeast extract (YN) and challenged with Eimeria, 5 d postchallenge.

Eimeria	YN, g/mt	Villi height, μm	Crypt depth, μm	VH:CD1	Carotenoid, μg/mL
No	0	1,020a	230.5	4.91	2.67
No	500	892.4b	192.6	4.93	1.95
Yes	0	447.2d	339.0	1.43	2.54
Yes	500	533.1c	323.0	1.79	1.95
	SEM	27.59	18.09	0.29	0.08
Main effect, Eimeria	No	956.6a	211.6b	4.92a	2.60a
	Yes	490.2b	331.0a	1.61b	1.95b
Main effect, YN, g/mt	No	734.0	284.8	3.17	2.31
	Yes	712.8	257.8	3.36	2.24
	SEM	19.51	12.77	0.21	0.059
Probabilities
Eimeria		<0.01	<0.01	<0.01	<0.01
YN		0.452	0.152	0.516	0.440
Eimeria×YN		0.001	0.552	0.571	0.426

Means assigned different letter superscripts within a response criterion differ, P ≤ 0.05.

¹Villi height/crypt depth ratio.