Table 7.
Effects of experimental diets on ileal histomorphometry of weaning piglets orally challenged with ETEC F4.
| Parameter | Treatment A | - | - | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | T2 | T3 | T4 | RSD B | p-Value | |
| Villus height (μm) | 312.9 | 336.1 | 331.8 | 338.6 | 41.57 | 0.612 |
| Crypt depth (μm) | 214.6 | 179.0 | 191.8 | 184.1 | 34.73 | 0.209 |
| Villus/crypt ratio | 1.49 b | 1.90 a | 1.73 ab | 1.84 a | 0.233 | 0.0092 |
| IELC (No. cel/100 μm) | 6.04 | 5.33 | 5.23 | 4.81 | 1.529 | 0.482 |
| GC D (No. cel/100 μm) | 3.36 | 3.32 | 2.93 | 2.89 | 1.301 | 0.853 |
| Mitosis E (No. cel/100 μm) | 1.38 | 1.27 | 1.21 | 1.24 | 0.323 | 0.764 |
A Treatments: T1, basal diet; T2, basal diet + ZnO; T3, basal diet + plant supplement ColiFit Icaps C; T4, T3 + plant supplement Phyto Ax’Cell. B RSD: residual standard deviation. C IEL= villus intraepithelial lymphocytes/100 µm. D GC= villus goblet cells/100 µm. E Mitosis = Mitosis in crypts/100 µm. a,b values with different letters within a row indicate a significant difference at p ≤ 0.05.