Table 5.
Gastrointestinal weight (mg/g BW) and jejunal histomorphology of broiler chickens hatched from eggs subjected to in ovo application of epidermal growth factor (EGF) on day 19 of incubation.
| EGF, μg | Treatments1 |
SEM |
P values2 |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
Punched | Injected | EGF | ||
| - | - | 0 | 80 | 160 | |||||
| Gizzard | |||||||||
| Day 0 | 68.1 | 65.3 | 69.6 | 66.6 | 69.2 | 0.81 | 0.86 | 0.41 | 0.93 |
| Day 7 | 35.6 | 35.8 | 36.3 | 38.3 | 36.4 | 0.47 | 0.38 | 0.21 | 0.16 |
| Day 14 | 22.7 | 23.7 | 24.1 | 23.3 | 22.7 | 2.83 | 0.41 | 0.86 | 0.48 |
| Day 21 | 17.1 | 16.8 | 17.2 | 16.4 | 16.7 | 0.15 | 0.48 | 0.59 | 0.23 |
| Small intestine | |||||||||
| Day 0 | 39.7 | 44.2 | 39.9 | 42.7 | 44.0 | 3.48 | 0.39 | 0.42 | 0.14 |
| Day 7 | 71.0 | 65.4 | 69.7 | 71.2 | 68.3 | 1.05 | 0.31 | 0.40 | 0.57 |
| Day 14 | 40.2 | 37.6 | 44.7 | 42.0 | 39.5 | 1.21 | 0.71 | 0.08 | 0.95 |
| Day 21 | 29.9 | 31.6 | 31.3 | 32.3 | 31.2 | 0.4 | 0.16 | 0.38 | 0.40 |
| Ceca | |||||||||
| Day 0 | 11.7 | 6.9 | 10.4 | 9.3 | 9.3 | 0.78 | 0.03 | 0.71 | 0.72 |
| Day 7 | 5.9 | 5.5 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 5.3 | 0.11 | 0.08 | 0.18 | 0.32 |
| Day 14 | 3.3 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.2 | 0.07 | 0.14 | 0.46 | 0.92 |
| Day 21 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 3.7 | 0.11 | 0.54 | 0.80 | 0.46 |
| Jejunal VH:CD3 | |||||||||
| Day 0 | 5.2 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 0.14 | 0.85 | 0.21 | 0.68 |
| Day 7 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 3.8 | 0.10 | 0.73 | 0.94 | 0.85 |
| Day 14 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.2 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 0.04 | 0.86 | 0.67 | 0.48 |
| Day 21 | 4.7 | 5.1 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 5.4 | 0.18 | 0.34 | 0.33 | 0.12 |
1
A, intact (not punched and no injected); B, punched but not injected; and C to E, punched and injected with either EGF fermentation broth or EGF at 80 or 160 μg/kg of egg into amniotic sac
2
Preplanned comparison, punched, treatment 1 vs. 2 to 5; injected, treatment 2 vs. 3 to 5; EGF, treatments 3, 4, and 5.
3
Villi height to crypt depth ratio, n = 6.