Effects of Bacillus coagulans supplementation on the growth performance and gut health of broiler chickens with Clostridium perfringens-induced necrotic enteritis

Table 4 Necrotic enteritis (NE) lesion scores in the small intestine of broiler chickens at 7 d after infection treated with dietary supplemental Bacillus coagulans and infected with NE^e

		NE lesion scores
Items	NE^f	duodenum	Jejunum	Ileum	Small intestine^h
Bacillus coagulans, mg/kg
0	–	0.29	0.17	0.17	0.21^c
400	–	0.21	0.13	0.13	0.15^c
0	+	1.95	1.48	0.63	1.35^a
400	+	1.13	0.63	0.50	0.75^b
SEM		0.097	0.076	0.058	0.083
Main effect
400		0.67^b	0.39	0.32	0.45
0		1.13^a	0.83	0.40	0.78
Challenged		1.54^c	1.05^a	0.65^a	1.05
Non-challenged		0.25^d	0.15^b	0.15^b	0.18
P-values^g
Challenged		<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Bacillus coagulans		0.013	0.074	0.331	0.003
Challenged × Bacillus coagulans		0.053	0.198	0.625	0.028

^{a, b, c, d} Means within the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05)
^eEach value represents the mean of 6 birds per treatment (1 bird per replicate). Scores were given from 0 to 4 depending on the severity
^fNE = Co-challenged with Eimeria spp. and Clostridium perfringens; −, without NE challenge; +, with NE challenge
^gP-values represent the main effect of the diet, the main effect of NE challenge, and the interaction between the dietary treatments and NE challenge
^hSmall intestine values represent the average of duodenal, jejunal, and ileal scores

ISSN: 2049-1891