Table 4.

Effect of treatments on blood cell count, relative weights of lymphoid organs and humoral immunity of broilers exposed to aflatoxin B₁.²

Item	Blood cells			Lymphoid organs (% of live weight)			Antibody titer (IU)
	H (%)	L (%)	H:L	Bursa	Thymus	Spleen	ND	AI
Treatments1
Control	34.4b	63.8a	0.54c,d	0.21	0.19a	0.13	6.33	5.66a
AFB	42.2a	56.6c	0.75a	0.22	0.14b	0.12	4.66	2.33b
LE3	35.4b	63.0a	0.56c,d	0.23	0.14b	0.12	6.66	3.33b
LE6	34.2b	63.8a	0.54c,d	0.26	0.18a,b	0.14	5.00	5.33a
PRO	34.0b	64.0a	0.53d	0.28	0.21a	0.13	6.33	3.00b
TXB	34.0b	64.4a	0.52d	0.29	0.18a,b	0.14	4.66	3.00b
PLB	38.2a,b	60.2b	0.63b,c	0.25	0.17a,b	0.12	6.33	5.33a
SEM	1.33	1.06	0.03	0.03	0.01	0.02	0.81	0.80
P-value	0.002	0.001	0.001	0.602	0.012	0.977	0.058	0.001
Contrasts	P-value
Control vs. AFB	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.588	0.002	0.746	0.165	0.014

^a–c Means within the same column with different letters are statistically significant (P < 0.05).

The values are least square means of the 6 replicates in each treatment.

¹Control = basal diet, AFB = basal diet + 0.5 mg/kg aflatoxin B₁, LE3 = basal diet + AFB₁ + 3 g/kg licorice extract, LE6 = basal diet + AFB₁ + 6 g/kg licorice extract, PRO = basal diet + AFB₁ + 0.5 g/kg Protexin probiotic, TXB = basal diet + AFB₁ + 1 g/kg toxin binder, and PLB = basal diet + AFB₁ + 5 g/kg poultry litter biochar.

²H = heterophil, L = lymphocyte, H:L = heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, ND = Newcastle disease, and AI = avian influenza.