Table 3.
Effect of dietary β-sitosterol inclusion at various levels on immune organ weight in broilers.
| Items | β-Sitosterol level (mg/kg) |
SEM1 |
P Value |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 | Linear | Quadratic | ||
| Absolute weight (g) | ||||||||
| Thymus | 7.51 | 8.00 | 8.15 | 8.10 | 8.48 | 0.30 | 0.354 | 0.870 |
| Spleen | 2.65b | 3.32a,b | 4.16a | 3.86a | 3.91a | 0.15 | 0.001 | 0.022 |
| Bursa of Fabricius | 4.01 | 5.12 | 4.82 | 4.51 | 4.74 | 0.20 | 0.547 | 0.286 |
| Relative weight (g/kg) | ||||||||
| Thymus | 2.98 | 2.90 | 2.99 | 3.15 | 3.02 | 0.10 | 0.678 | 0.992 |
| Spleen | 1.02b | 1.23a,b | 1.56a | 1.51a | 1.39a,b | 0.06 | 0.007 | 0.016 |
| Bursa of Fabricius | 1.56 | 1.89 | 1.82 | 1.78 | 1.69 | 0.07 | 0.758 | 0.187 |
a, bMeans within a row with different superscripts are different at P < 0.05.
1
SEM, total standard error of means (n = 6).