Table 4.

The effects of diets with alternative additive (A) and colistin (C) on villus height and width, crypt depth, number of goblet cells in duodenum and jejunum, and relative empty organ weights of piglets slaughtered at 35 and 65 d of age¹

	Diet2					P-value
Item	CON	COL	AA	AACOL	SEM	A	C	A × C
Slaughter at 35 d
Villus height, μm
Duodenum	614.4	618.4	616.5	618.5	1.7	0.736	0.367	0.754
Jejunum	651.3	652.7	651.2	654.3	1.1	0.724	0.287	0.660
Villus width, μm
Duodenum	330.8	332.4	332.1	332.8	1.4	0.623	0.474	0.776
Jejunum	351.4	352.5	351.3	359.6	1.2	0.087	0.023	0.080
Crypt depth, μm
Duodenum	247.3	249.5	251.1	250.1	1.4	0.427	0.836	0.576
Jejunum	266.0a	260.8b	263.1a	265.4a	0.7	0.516	0.269	0.006
Goblet cells
Duodenum	102.2	104.8	105.1	107.0	1.3	0.333	0.399	0.899
Jejunum	113.0	123.1	101.4	107.1	2.1	<0.001	0.004	0.373
Relative weights, % of body weight
Small intestine	4.99	4.87	4.58	4.62	0.16	0.039	0.781	0.593
Stomach	0.95	0.90	0.94	0.90	0.03	0.899	0.316	0.878
Liver	2.71ab	2.99ab	3.06a	2.60b	0.11	0.922	0.524	0.015
Pancreas	0.20	0.22	0.19	0.18	0.01	0.215	0.627	0.371
Cecum	0.29	0.31	0.35	0.29	0.02	0.602	0.613	0.266
Colon	1.60	1.70	1.43	1.39	0.06	0.001	0.695	0.271
Slaughter at 65 d
Villus height, μm
Duodenum	720.8a	719.0a	698.1b	715.5a	1.9	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Jejunum	740.5	758.0	749.7	759.6	2.3	0.118	<0.001	0.257
Villus width, μm
Duodenum	433.6b	444.8a	447.3a	447.9a	1.5	0.002	0.022	0.038
Jejunum	333.0d	343.1c	352.9b	373.6a	2.7	<0.001	<0.001	0.043
Crypt depth, μm
Duodenum	326.1c	343.2b	331.0c	357.3a	2.3	<0.001	<0.001	0.028
Jejunum	345.8b	353.0b	351.3b	373.4a	2.0	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Goblet cells count
Duodenum	152.3	159.7	152.0	155.8	1.0	0.328	0.014	0.409
Jejunum	99.8b	117.3a	104.9b	97.4b	1.9	0.024	0.114	<0.001
Relative weights, % of body weight
Small intestine	4.50	4.16	3.82	4.21	0.19	0.096	0.891	0.059
Stomach	0.91	0.88	0.86	0.85	0.04	0.134	0.424	0.695
Liver	2.77	2.65	2.80	2.63	0.13	0.993	0.325	0.860
Pancreas	0.22ab	0.21b	0.20b	0.25a	0.01	0.495	0.047	0.002
Cecum	0.22	0.24	0.22	0.21	0.06	0.794	0.196	0.380
Colon	1.70	1.60	1.64	1.89	0.09	0.276	0.485	0.115

¹Least-squares means based on nine observations per diet.

2CON, control diet; COL, diet containing 40 ppm colistin; AA, diet with 0.3% inclusion of alternative additive composed of benzoic acid and essential oils of eugenol, thymol and piperine; AACOL, diet with 0.3% AA and 40 ppm colistin.

^a,bMeans within a row with different superscripts differ (P < 0.05).