Dietary encapsulated essential oils and organic acids mixture improves gut health in broiler chickens challenged with necrotic enteritis

Table 6 Effects of dietary supplementation with BLJ on serum FITC-D concentration and cecal and liver Clostridium perfringens (CFU/g) numbers in broiler chickens challenged with NE

Items	NE¹	FITC-D, ng/mL		Liver Clostridium perfringens, CFU/g	Cecal Clostridium perfringens, CFU/g
Items	NE¹	1 h	2.5 h	Liver Clostridium perfringens, CFU/g	Cecal Clostridium perfringens, CFU/g
BLJ, mg/kg
0	–	9.74^ab	9.84	0.32^b	0.00^c
0	+	9.88^a	10.00	1.93^a	4.69^a
500	–	9.68^bc	9.88	0.00^b	0.00^c
500	+	9.52^c	9.83	0.42^b	2.23^b
SEM²		0.04	0.05	0.18	0.40
Main effect
0		9.81	9.92	1.13	2.34
500		9.60	9.86	0.21	1.11
Non-challenged		9.71	9.86	0.16	0.00
Challenged		9.70	9.92	1.18	3.46
P-value³
BLJ		< 0.01	0.552	< 0.01	< 0.01
Challenged		0.838	0.570	< 0.01	< 0.01
Challenged×BLJ		0.033	0.292	0.021	< 0.01

^{a, b, c} Means within the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05)
¹NE Co-challenged with Eimeria spp. and Clostridium perfringens; −, without NE challenge; +, with NE challenge
²SEM, standard error of the mean
³P-values represent the main effect of the diet, the main effect of the NE challenge, and the interaction between the dietary treatments and NE challenge

ISSN: 2049-1891