Abstract
Three hundred sixty 1-d-old male Arbor Acres broilers were randomly allotted to 6 groups with a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement of treatments. Three supplemental levels (0, 0.25, and 0.50%) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product (XP) were fed to control and Eimeria tenella-infected broilers. Growth performance and immune response criteria were measured after coccidian infection. Broiler ADG was lowered (P < 0.01) by coccidian infection and improved by XP supplementation (P = 0.04). Supplementation of XP increased CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T-lymphocyte counts (P < 0.05) and the ratio CD4+:CD8+ in blood (P = 0.06) and spleen (P = 0.04) as well as ileum intraepithelial lymphocyte count, cecal tonsil secretory IgA counts, serum lysozyme content (P < 0.01), and albumin:globulin ratio (P = 0.02). These results suggest that dietary XP supplementation could improve immune function and growth performance in coccidia-infected broilers.
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