Table 4.

Pearson correlation coefficients (top number) and P-value (bottom number) for starch in diet and blood immune markers of cannulated beef steer fed free-choice step-up diets that contained increased concentrations of cracked corn (35%, 60%, and 82%; STEP1 [days 14 to 21], STEP2 [days 21 to 28], and STEP3 [days 28 to 35], respectively) plus 0.45 kg of molasses that was individually fed containing or not 3 g of polyclonal antibody preparations against Streptococcus bovis, Fusobacterium necrophorum, and lipopolysaccharides (40%, 35%, and 25% of the preparation, respectively)

Item1	Starch	SAA, μg/mL	Hp, mg/mL	RT, °C	Ruminal pH	CD21+, %	Monocyte, mL blood
SAA, μg/mL	0.336
	<0.001
Hp, mg/mL	0.275	0.383
	0.001	<0.001
RT, °C	0.528	0.149	−0.033
	<0.001	0.165	0.759
Ruminal pH	−0.662	−0.266	−0.131	−0.476
	<0.001	0.041	0.223	<0.001
CD21+, %	−0.181	−0.255	−0.018	−0.114	−0.245
	0.217	0.078	0.901	0.495	0.143
Monocyte, mL blood	−0.596	−0.281	−0.112	−0.468	0.694	−0.324
	<0.001	0.050	0.448	0.003	<0.001	0.024
Neutrophil, mL blood	−0.587	−0.332	−0.137	−0.420	0.623	−0.148	0.655
	<0.001	0.024	0.35	0.008	<0.001	0.315	<0.001

¹Number of observation per variable: Serum amyloid A (SAA; n = 143), haptoglobin (Hp; n = 140), rectal temperature (RT; n = 88), ruminal pH (n = 90), CD21⁺ (n = 48), monocyte (n = 48), and neutrophil (n = 48).