Table 2.
Effect of vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids on ileal morphology of broilers.
| Treatments1 |
SEM | P-value | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control | Starter VE | Starter n-3 | Starter VE and n-3 | Grower VE | Grower n-3 | Grower VE and n-3 | |||
| Villus height (μm) | 1,241.12 | 1,241.73 | 1,263.05 | 1,235.35 | 1,239.9 | 1,262.41 | 1,253.86 | 20.86 | 0.99 |
| Crypt depth (μm) | 276.36 | 274.87 | 275.80 | 289.37 | 271.76 | 286.25 | 303.21 | 3.26 | 0.19 |
| Villus/crypt2 | 4.60 | 4.62 | 4.64 | 4.50 | 4.70 | 4.53 | 4.22 | 0.07 | 0.71 |
| Villus width (μm) | 281.83 | 275.88 | 278.40 | 287.85 | 261.50 | 258.79 | 263.02 | 3.22 | 0.21 |
| Surface area (mm2) | 1.10 | 1.09 | 1.12 | 1.13 | 1.02 | 1.06 | 1.04 | 0.02 | 0.79 |
| Distance between villi (μm) | 54.34 | 55.56 | 63.96 | 56.01 | 60.07 | 50.78 | 57.27 | 1.08 | 0.08 |
| IEL3 | 25.85 | 24.69 | 24.36 | 25.09 | 21.65 | 24.61 | 21.29 | 0.61 | 0.24 |
1
Broilers in control group were fed diets with standard level of vitamin E (VE; 10 IU/kg) and omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids (n-6/n-3 ratio of 30.2:1) during the entire study (0–58 d). Supplementation of dietary VE (200 IU/kg), n-3 fatty acids (n-6/n-3 ratio of 3.2:1), or combination of both were fed during the starter phase (0–10 d) or grower phase (11–24 d).
2
Villus/crypt = Ratio of villus height to crypt depth.
3
IEL: Number of intraepithelial lymphocytes per 100 epithelial cells.