Table 1.

The body weights, feed conversion ratios, lesion scores, oocyst numbers in the cecum, and in the intestinal lengths of broiler chicks in Experiment 1.

Parameter	C	WC_0.005	WC_0.01	WC_0.03	WC_0.1	A	p Value †
Body weight (g)
Day 0	37 ± 2	37 ± 2	36 ± 1	36 ± 2	37 ± 2	37 ± 2	0.990
Day 21	795 ± 114	812 ± 99	810 ± 105	864 ± 135	870 ± 74	849 ± 81	0.480
Day 31	1657 ± 205	1698 ± 196	1670 ± 176	1697 ± 223	1774 ± 159	1740 ± 171	0.768
Feed conversion ratio (g/g)
Day 0–21	1.87	1.87	1.86	1.79	1.63	1.90	–
Day 21–31	1.84	1.76	1.79	1.57	1.43	1.65	–
Day 0–31	1.86	1.81	1.82	1.66	1.52	1.76	–
Lesion score (score 0–4 ‡)
Small intestine	1.5 ± 0.6	1.4 ± 0.6	1.6 ± 0.7	1.1 ± 0.4	1.6 ± 0.6	1.3 ± 0.5	0.298
Cecum	1.5 ± 0.6	1.4 ± 0.6	1.1 ± 0.6	1.3 ± 0.5	1.2 ± 0.4	1.1 ± 1.4	0.720
Oocyst numbers in the cecum (×104 oocyst/g)	8.66 ± 1.79	7.69 ± 0.88	6.87 ± 0.78	6.86 ± 1.96	6.64 ± 1.20	9.92 ± 6.34	0.104
Intestinal length (cm)
Small intestine	154.6 ± 10.8	161.5 ± 16.3	175.9 ± 18.3	163.9 ± 20.3	165.3 ± 16.4	164.6 ± 17.3	0.154
Cecum	16.3 ± 2.2	16.4 ± 3.1	16.4 ± 2.5	16.0 ± 2.4	17.0 ± 1.8	17.9 ± 1.8	0.504

Except for the feed conversion ratios, all parameters are shown as the means ± standard deviations (n = 10). Feed conversion ratios are shown as single values because broiler chicks of a same group were allocated together into pens. C, non-treatment control; WC_0.005, supplementation with 5 × 10⁴ CFU of Weizmannia coagulans strain SANK70258/g; WC_0.01, 1 × 10⁵ CFU/g; WC_0.03, 3 × 10⁵ CFU/g; WC_0.1, 1 × 10⁶ CFU/g of feed; A, 75 ppm of sodium lasalocid-A in feed. Days indicate the ages of broiler chicks. ^† Probability value of one-way analysis of variance or the Kruskal–Wallis test. ^‡ The criteria for the lesion scores were as described by Johnson and Reid [21].