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

Table 7 Effect of Bacillus coagulans on serum speicific IgG and intestinal specific IgA against Clostridium perfringens and intestinal AKP activity of broiler chickens challenged with NE (n = 6)

Items	NE^e	sIgA^f		IgG^g		IAP^h
Items	NE^e	d 28	d 42	d 28	d 42	d 28	d 42
Bacillus coagulans, mg/kg
0	–	1.07	1.08	1.80	1.12	455.8	633.7
0	+	1.38	1.35	2.24	1.02	414.4	531.6
400	–	0.98	0.86	1.68	0.81	491.0	733.9
400	+	1.00	1.66	2.31	0.95	471.4	652.5
SEMⁱ		0.036	0.103	0.115	0.039	28.94	25.01
Main effect
400		1.22^a	1.26	1.99	0.88^b	481.2	693.2^a
0		0.99^b	1.22	2.02	1.07^a	435.1	582.6^b
Challenged		1.19^c	1.51^a	2.28^a	0.99	442.9	592.0
Non-challenged		1.02^d	0.97^b	1.74^b	0.96	473.4	683.8
P-values^j
Bacillus coagulans		0.008	0.840	0.910	0.031	0.441	0.047
Challenged		0.045	0.023	0.038	0.801	0.608	0.092
Challenged ×Bacillus coagulans		0.069	0.217	0.683	0.131	0.854	0.839

^a,b,c,d Means within the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05)
^eNE = Co-challenged with Eimeria spp. and Clostridium perfringens; −, without NE challenge; +, with NE challenge
^fsIgA = secretory immunoglobulin A
^gAll values represent the means with subtracted background OD_490nm. Sera were diluted at 1:50 for the C.perfringens antigen detection, respectively, using ELISAs. Each sample was assayed in duplicate
^hIAP = intestinal alkline phosphatase, μmol/mg protein
ⁱSEM, standard error of the mean
^jP-values represent the main effect of the diet, the main effect of NE challenge, and the interaction between the dietary treatments and NE challenge

ISSN: 2049-1891