Table 4.

Effect of different dietary levels of betaine on serum biochemical indices (mmol/L) of geese.

		Groups3						P-valuea,b
Age	Items1,2	A	B	C	D	E	SEM	Bet	Linear	Quadratic
21 d	TG	0.52	0.45	0.59	0.67	0.50	0.040	0.428	0.489	0.457
	TCHOL	4.38	4.35	3.94	4.47	4.25	0.094	0.508	0.822	0.484
	HDL	1.49	1.52	1.66	1.50	1.69	0.048	0.538	0.259	0.931
	LDL	1.48	1.37	1.47	1.44	1.52	0.052	0.925	0.699	0.598
42 d	TG	0.45	0.41	0.37	0.32	0.33	0.026	0.477	0.082	0.956
	TCHOL	4.87	4.60	4.55	4.37	4.19	0.117	0.446	0.065	0.974
	HDL	2.10	2.13	2.03	2.28	2.23	0.050	0.562	0.629	0.477
	LDL	1.84	1.64	1.61	1.59	1.70	0.057	0.648	0.417	0.199
63 d	TG	0.985a	0.760b	0.772b	0.668b	0.036	0.011	0.011	0.002	0.208
	TCHOL	4.62a	4.38ab	4.37ab	4.00b	3.93b	0.085	0.046	0.003	0.979
	HDL	2.34	2.48	2.25	2.67	2.67	0.071	0.213	0.080	0.539
	LDL	1.21	1.21	1.10	1.31	1.27	0.037	0.495	0.367	0.420

¹Abbreviations: HDL, high-density lipoprotein; and LDL, low-density lipoprotein; TCHOL, total cholesterol; TG, triglyceride.

²Results are expressed as means, with n = 12 per treatment.

³Group A received only the basal diet; group B received the basal diet supplemented with an additional 600 mg/kg betaine; group C received the basal diet supplemented with an additional 1,200 mg/kg betaine; group D received the basal diet supplemented with an additional 1,800 mg/kg betaine; group E received the basal diet supplemented with an additional 2,400 mg/kg betaine.

^a.bIn the same row, values with different small letter superscripts indicate significant difference (P<0.05), while those with the same or no letter superscripts indicate no significant difference (P>0.05).