Table 5.

The effect of organic zinc and/or thyme extract administration on the concentration of microelements (Zn, Cu, Fe, and Mn) in the tissues of rabbits.

Item	Treatment				SEM	P -value
	C	Zn	TE	Zn + TE		Zn	TE	Zn × TE
Zinc (mg/kg DM)
Liver	121.6	127.2	123.2	122.0	3.170	0.751	0.793	0.624
Kidney	120.4a,b	123.2b	110.3a	110.6a	1.731	0.573	0.0004	0.645
Muscle	20.10	20.50	21.57	22.48	0.439	0.448	0.060	0.764
Jejunal mucosa	135.5	126.8	118.9	122.3	3.946	0.744	0.206	0.465
Copper (mg/kg DM)
Liver	37.90	43.97	31.89	43.92	2.665	0.105	0.575	0.581
Kidney	17.96	17.49	17.38	18.24	0.198	0.622	0.830	0.107
Muscle	0.967	0.867	1.147	0.877	0.042	0.021	0.214	0.264
Jejunal mucosa	9.29	7.55	9.69	9.37	0.382	0.172	0.144	0.339
Iron (mg/kg DM)
Liver	282.4	252.2	266.1	274.2	9.094	0.563	0.881	0.321
Kidney	172.7	185.9	177.2	179.0	3.004	0.231	0.841	0.362
Muscle	16.38	16.18	14.79	15.05	0.442	0.975	0.145	0.803
Jejunal mucosa	128.2	124.1	145.7	117.9	6.666	0.266	0.690	0.408
Manganese (mg/kg DM)
Liver	5.57	5.80	5.49	5.13	0.195	0.867	0.358	0.471
Kidney	7.24	7.42	7.65	8.39	0.263	0.394	0.210	0.602
Muscle	0.372	0.363	0.390	0.396	0.015	0.948	0.446	0.824
Jejunal mucosa	11.74	10.42	13.38	10.70	0.533	0.064	0.359	0.515

C, control; Zn, zinc proteinate; TE, thyme extract; DM, dry matter.

^a,bMeans with different superscript letters in a row are significantly different (P < 0.05) using Tukey's post-hoc test.