Table 2.

Effects of graded levels of dietary beta-sitosterol supplementation on the growth performance of broiler chickens.

Items1	Beta-sitosterol level (mg/kg)					SEM2	P-values
	0	25	50	75	100		ANOVA3	Linear	Quadratic
1 to 14 d
ADFI (g/d/bird)	35.52	35.29	36.31	36.06	35.88	0.45	0.963	0.661	0.773
ADG (g/d/bird)	27.58	29.34	29.95	29.61	27.94	0.40	0.248	0.726	0.025
FCR (g:g)	1.29a	1.20b	1.21b	1.22b	1.29a	0.01	0.007	0.919	<0.001
15 to 21 d
ADFI (g/d/bird)	52.11	51.70	50.25	49.03	50.26	0.72	0.691	0.234	0.576
ADG (g/d/bird)	33.79	34.57	32.92	31.74	32.41	0.59	0.599	0.198	0.958
FCR (g:g)	1.54	1.51	1.53	1.55	1.55	0.01	0.922	0.663	0.546
1 to 21 d
ADFI (g/d/bird)	40.74	40.47	40.62	40.13	40.39	0.35	0.989	0.698	0.896
ADG (g/d/bird)	29.65	31.09	30.94	30.32	29.43	0.31	0.344	0.581	0.056
FCR (g:g)	1.37a	1.31b	1.31b	1.33ab	1.37a	0.01	0.014	0.753	0.001

^a-bMeans within a row with different superscripts are different at P < 0.05.

¹ADFI, average daily feed intake; ADG, average daily gain; FCR, feed conversion ratio.

²SEM, standard error of the mean (n = 6).

³ANOVA, analysis of variance.