Abstract
Abstract Fifty-five newborn, male piglets, was employed to investigate the effects of dietary crude protein level (CP) on the development of the digestive organs in piglets. Villous morphology, immune status, mucosa enzyme activity and glycogen, and DNA and RNA content of the digestive organs were determined, especially of the small intestine. Piglets were randomly allotted to five treatments and fed five diets containing CP 63, 103, 151, 208, or 249 g kg−1 diet (CP63, CP103, CP151, CP208, CP249), respectively. All piglets were given creep feed at day 7 and weaned at day 21. At the end of the experiment (42 days), six piglets of each treatment were slaughtered to collect tissue samples (duodenum, proximal jejunum, distal jejunum, ileum, stomach, pancreas and liver) for morphological and histochemical analyses. The results showed that dietary CP significantly affected villous height, crypt depth, intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs), epithelial cell size, alkaline phosphatase (AKP), acid phosphatase (ADP), glycogen content, DNA and RNA density of some small intestinal sectors polynomially (P
Published Version
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