Table 3.

Effect of AAE on cytokine content in small intestine of broilers.

Items	AAE supplemental level, g/kg					p -value
	0	0.5	1.0	1.5	2.0	ANOVA	Linear	Quadratic
21 d
IL-1β pg/mg prot.
Duodenum	23.91 ± 1.53a	21.41 ± 2.17a	17.31 ± 3.09b	14.92 ± 2.70b	10.58 ± 0.94c	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Jejunum	15.25 ± 2.40a	10.59 ± 1.64b	11.08 ± 2.08b	11.06 ± 0.66b	11.74 ± 1.22b	0.022	0.198	0.015
Ileum	19.49 ± 3.68	16.62 ± 3.27	14.61 ± 2.56	14.52 ± 3.89	16.62 ± 2.39	0.301	0.147	0.074
IL-6 pg/mg prot.
Duodenum	0.66 ± 0.12	0.70 ± 0.07	0.54 ± 0.13	0.54 ± 0.14	0.42 ± 0.09	0.118	0.010	0.036
Jejunum	0.47 ± 0.12a	0.44 ± 0.06a	0.44 ± 0.08a	0.28 ± 0.08b	0.28 ± 0.05b	0.013	0.002	0.006
Ileum	0.16 ± 0.03a	0.09 ± 0.01b	0.10 ± 0.01b	0.06 ± 0.01c	0.11 ± 0.01b	<0.001	0.015	0.001
42 d
IL-1β pg/mg prot.
Duodenum	18.59 ± 0.60	18.75 ± 1.04	17.91 ± 1.53	17.91 ± 0.62	16.41 ± 1.77	0.125	0.015	0.031
Jejunum	24.08 ± 1.75a	22.35 ± 2.76a	18.23 ± 2.73b	17.12 ± 0.67b	17.76 ± 1.30b	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Ileum	15.84 ± 0.82	13.16 ± 3.97	11.86 ± 1.23	13.25 ± 0.86	13.54 ± 1.23	0.115	0.158	0.030
IL-6 pg/mg prot.
Duodenum	0.81 ± 0.04a	0.59 ± 0.08b	0.55 ± 0.10b	0.52 ± 0.13b	0.56 ± 0.03b	0.030	0.015	0.004
Jejunum	0.46 ± 0.12a	0.33 ± 0.09ab	0.26 ± 0.06b	0.19 ± 0.02b	0.18 ± 0.03b	0.008	0.001	0.001
Ileum	0.11 ± 0.02a	0.10 ± 0.00a	0.10 ± 0.01ab	0.06 ± 0.01b	0.08 ± 0.01ab	0.036	0.008	0.026

AAE, Artemisia annua L. aqueous extract; IL-1β, interleukin 1 beta; IL-6, interleukin 6. ^a−cMeans within a row with different letters differ significantly (p < 0.05), whereas the probability value of 0.05 ≤ p < 0.10 was considered as a tendency. Each value is shown as mean ± SD (Data are means for five replicates of eight birds per replicate).