Table 4.
Relative caecal weight and circumference of the caecal opening for broilers in digestibility cages at d 11, 22 and 36 fed the 7 experimental diets.
| Variables | Caecal weight, g/100g BW |
Caecal opening, mm |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| d 11 | d 22 | d 36 | d 11 | d 22 | d 36 | |
| Treatment groups1 | ||||||
| CTRL | 0.92 | 0.71 | 0.55 | 0.72 | 1.17 | 1.59 |
| Bel10 | 1.17∗ | 0.62 | 0.62 | 0.73 | 1.08 | 1.51 |
| Bel100 | 0.93 | 0.70 | 0.55 | 0.77 | 1.18 | 1.52 |
| Bel1000 | 0.90 | 0.80 | 0.54 | 0.77 | 1.13 | 1.49 |
| Eco10 | 0.90 | 0.61 | 0.64 | 0.75 | 1.11 | 1.48 |
| Eco100 | 0.92 | 0.75 | 0.77∗ | 0.78 | 1.15 | 1.57 |
| Eco1000 | 1.05 | 0.86 | 0.75∗ | 0.76 | 1.20 | 1.58 |
| Pooled SEM | 0.18 | 0.25 | 0.16 | 0.08 | 0.12 | 0.17 |
| Main effects | ||||||
| Age | ||||||
| d 11 | 0.97 ± 0.18a | 0.76 ± 0.08c | ||||
| d 22 | 0.72 ± 0.25b | 1.15 ± 0.12b | ||||
| d 36 | 0.63 ± 0.16c | 1.53 ± 0.17a | ||||
| Enzyme | ||||||
| Bel | 0.80 ± 0.08 | 1.07 ± 0.05 | ||||
| Eco | 0.83 ± 0.08 | 1.08 ± 0.05 | ||||
| Dose, mg/kg | ||||||
| 10 | 0.80 ± 0.08 | 1.04 ± 0.07 | ||||
| 100 | 0.80 ± 0.08 | 1.11 ± 0.05 | ||||
| 1,000 | 0.84 ± 0.11 | 1.09 ± 0.05 | ||||
| P ANOVA | ||||||
| Age | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||
| Enzyme | 0.07 | 0.34 | ||||
| Dose | 0.59 | 0.08 | ||||
| Age × Enzyme | 0.04 | 0.94 | ||||
| Age × Dose | 0.07 | 0.98 | ||||
| Dose × Enzyme | 0.014 | 0.83 | ||||
BW = body-weight; SEM = standard error of the mean.
∗Indicate treatment means which differ significantly from the control mean (P < 0.10); analysed according to the posthoc Dunnett's test.
a,b,c Means having different superscripts in a particular column for the main effect are significantly different; analysed according to the posthoc Tukey's HSD test (P < 0.05). Means are represented as means ± SEM.
CTRL, control diet; Bel, Belfeed supplemented diet; Eco, Econase supplemented diet. Reported values are means from 15, 10 and 10 individual birds for each dietary treatment group at d 11, 22 and 36, respectively.