Table 2.

Effect of different VA levels in the maternal and its offspring diets on the early weight and weight gain of goslings.

Item	Maternal VA level/(IU/kg)	Offspring VA level/(IU/kg)	0 D weight/g	7 D weight/g	7 D weight gain/g
T1	0	0	92.95	212.00	119.05
T2		9,000	88.12	229.00	140.88
T3	4,000	0	91.20	250.58	159.37
T4		9,000	92.38	259.44	167.06
T5	8,000	0	90.16	244.09	153.92
T6		9,000	90.50	247.90	157.40
T7	12,000	0	91.75	255.87	164.12
T8		9,000	91.29	265.03	173.74
T9	16,000	0	88.71	249.43	160.72
T10		9,000	92.61	240.50	147.89
	SEM1		0.67	2.54	2.45
	0		90.53	220.50c	129.97c
	4,000		91.79	255.01a,b	163.22a,b
	8,000		90.33	245.99b	155.66b
	12,000		91.52	260.45a	168.93a
	16,000		90.66	244.96b	154.31b
	SEM1		0.67	2.54	2.45
		0		242.39	139.21b
		9,000		248.37	157.34a
		SEM1		5.07	6.57
P-value	Maternal VA level		0.950	<0.001	<0.001
	Linear		0.996	<0.001	<0.001
	Quadratic		0.873	<0.001	<0.001
	Offspring VA level			0.243	0.009
	Maternal VA level and offspring VA level interaction			0.256	0.033

The results are average values, n = 6 in T1 to T10, n = 12 when the maternal VA level is the main factor, and n = 30 when the VA level of the offspring is the main factor.

The same letter or no letter in the same column indicates that the difference is not significant (P > 0.05), and different lowercase letters indicate significant difference (P < 0.05).

¹SEM is the standard error of the mean.