. 2021 May 24;7(4):1039–1051. doi: 10.1016/j.aninu.2021.02.001

Table 6.

Effect of a protected organic acids-essential oils blend with or without oat hulls on intestinal morphology in broiler chickens (data not having units are scores).

Item	Treatments¹				SEM	P-value
Item	BAS	BMD	OE	OEOH	SEM	P-value
Duodenum
Epithelial thickness	2	2	2	2	0.05	0.3988
Proliferation of enterocytes	2	2	2	2	0.05	0.1541
Increase of goblet cells	0^b	0^b	0^b	2^a	0.07	0.0020
ISI total score	11.4	11.5	11.7	11.5	0.24	0.9675
Villus height, μm	2,317^a	1,964^b	2,328^a	2,245^a	28.8	0.0000
Crypt depth, μm	113^ab	103^ab	119^a	97.9^b	1.03	0.0245
Villus height:Crypt depth	22.3^ab	19.4^b	21.7^ab	23.8^a	0.50	0.0215
Jejunum
Epithelial thickness	1	1	1	1	0.03	0.1089
Proliferation of enterocytes	1	1	1	1	0.03	0.8709
Increase of goblet cells	0^b	2^a	2^a	0^b	0.07	0.0240
ISI total score	5.80	7.19	6.58	6.13	0.22	0.1393
Villus height, μm	1,021^b	1,162^b	1,474^a	1,028^b	23.3	0.0000
Crypt depth, μm	105	99.6	105	94.2	1.96	0.1422
Villus height:Crypt depth	10.6^b	12.6^b	15.5^a	12.4^b	0.34	0.0000
Ileum
Epithelial thickness	1	1	1	1	0.03	0.1235
Proliferation of enterocytes	1	1	1	1	0.03	0.1073
Increase of goblet cells	0	0	0	0	0.06	0.4381
ISI total score	5.28^ab	4.35^b	6.60^a	4.90^b	0.42	0.0000
Villus height, μm	1,247^b	970^c	928^c	1,588^a	25.2	0.0000
Crypt depth, μm	117^a	101^b	98.9^b	113^ab	2.05	0.0028
Villus height:Crypt depth	11.5^b	10.5^b	9.8^b	15.4^a	0.29	0.0000

SEM = standard error of the mean; ISI = I see inside.

^{a, b} In a row, means assigned different lowercase letters are significantly different, P < 0.05 (Tukey's procedure).

BAS, basal diet; BMD, antibiotic diet; OE, diet containing 300 g of protected organic acids-essential oils mix/1,000 kg of feed; OEOH, diet containing 300 g of protected organic acids-essential oils mix/1,000 kg of feed +3% coarse oat hulls.