Table 4.

Effects of dietary DIC supplementation level on histomorphological parameters recorded in the ileum of 10-day-old and 39-day-old broiler chickens (Experiment 1).

		Experimental Treatments 1				Statistics
Ileum	Age	CTR	0.5DIC	1DIC	2DIC	SEM	p-Value
Villus
Height, µm	10 d	352	356	371	368	20.70	0.778
	39 d	627	629	601	765	91.79	0.182
Goblet cells/villus	10 d	56.6 ab	60.9 a	60.2 a	49.8 b	3.861	0.023
	39 d	120	138	126	138	9.087	0.238
IEL/villus	10 d	4.72	5.82	5.55	5.53	0.812	0.558
	39 d	22.1 xy	23.7 xy	19.3 y	28.5 x	3.200	0.085
Crypt
Depth, µm	10 d	160	164	167	158	11.41	0.854
	39 d	183	179	181	179	7.748	0.956
Mitosis/crypt	10 d	2.00	2.87	3.63	2.88	0.524	0.103
	39 d	1.08	1.73	1.25	1.99	0.523	0.303
Villus:crypt ratio
	10 d	2.28	2.21	2.32	2.37	0.198	0.914
	39 d	3.48	3.57	3.39	4.37	0.598	0.187

¹ CTR = basal diet; 0.5DIC = basal diet supplemented with 0.5 kg/t DIC; 1DIC = basal diet supplemented with 1 kg/t DIC; 2DIC = basal diet supplemented with 2 kg/t DIC. Values are means of 6 replicates. ^a–b Means within a row lacking a common superscript differ (p ≤ 0.05). ^x–y Means within a row lacking a common superscript differ (0.05 < p ≤ 0.10). DIC = feed additive DICOSAN+; IEL = intraepithelial lymphocytes; SEM = standard error of the mean.