Figure 3.

Effects of dietary shredded, steam-exploded pine particles (SPP) supplementation on the community richness and diversity of cecum microflora in broiler chickens exposed to either thermoneutral or heat stress conditions. The treatments were control diet containing 0% SPP at thermoneutral temperature (0% NT), control diet with acute heat stress (0% HS), 1% SPP-supplemented diet at acute heat stress (1% HS), and 2% SPP-supplemented diet at acute heat stress (2% HS). The thermoneutral birds were maintained at 21.0 °C while the temperature of the heat-stressed room was raised to 31 °C within the first three hours and then maintained for another three hours that made the total HS period of six hours.