Table 3.

Mean effect size estimates from a random-effect meta-analysis for feeding control, mycotoxins alone or yeast cell wall extract (YCWE) inclusion during mycotoxin challenges on the performance of broiler chickens.

					Heterogeneity test
Item1	No. Comp.2	Mean effect size	95% CI3	P-value	I2 (%)4	P-value	Eggar P-value5
Body Weight Gain, g
Mycotoxin - Control	33	−217.20	−155.70, −278.68	<0.001	99.60	<0.001	0.398
YCWE - Mycotoxin	46	65.48	41.35, 89.61	<0.001	97.79	<0.001	0.069
YCWE - Control	43	−139.61	−95.90, −183.31	<0.001	99.34	<0.001	0.914
Total Feed Intake, g
Mycotoxin - Control	32	-264.44	−174.70, −354.19	<0.001	99.56	<0.001	0.124
YCWE - Mycotoxin	44	99.39	50.29, 148.49	<0.001	98.93	<0.001	0.019
YCWE - Control	39	−137.04	−69.72, −204.37	<0.001	99.44	<0.001	0.911
FCR6
Mycotoxin - Control	34	0.12	0.08, 0.16	<0.001	98.93	<0.001	0.844
YCWE - Mycotoxin	48	−0.05	−0.02, −0.08	0.001	98.93	<0.001	0.309
YCWE - Control	45	0.07	0.04, 0.10	<0.001	98.87	<0.001	0.459
Mortality Rate, %
Mycotoxin - Control	15	2.07	1.35, 2.79	<0.001	99.92	<0.001	0.030
YCWE - Mycotoxin	24	−1.74	−1.24, −2.24	<0.001	99.91	<0.001	0.130
YCWE - Control	21	0.22	0.64, 1.08	0.615	99.98	<0.001	0.001

¹Treatments represent control, diets reported to contain undetectable or minimal mycotoxin contamination; Mycotoxin, diets with reported mycotoxin contamination; and yeast cell wall extract (YCWE; Mycosorb, Alltech, Inc.) diets reported to contain both mycotoxins and YCWE. Effects of mycotoxins or YCWE were determined by the differences between treatments of mycotoxin minus control, YCWE minus mycotoxin, and YCWE minus control.

²No. Comp.: number of different trial comparisons for each treatment and performance variable available from the 25 references used in this meta-analysis.

³95% CI, 95% confidence interval.

⁴I2: percentage of between-study variation.

⁵Eggar P-value: Eggar test for asymmetry for gauging publication bias.

⁶FCR, feed conversion ratio.