Fig. 3

Component score (a) and component weight (b) plots from principal component analysis of selected blood biochemistry parameters. Chick blood samples were obtained on the day of hatching. The cluster of control birds is well separated from all fluoroquinolone-treated birds and the first two components combined explain 68.96% of variation observed. Group labels: C = control birds (data for chicks hatching from untreated and sham-treated control eggs grouped); E2, M2 = birds exposed to fluoroquinolone enrofloxacin (E2 = 10 μg of enrofloxacin per 1 g of egg weight) and marbofloxacin (M2 = 10 μg of marbofloxacin per 1 g of egg weight). Abbreviations: TPRO = total protein, GLU = glucose, UA = uric acid, TG = triglycerides, IP = inorganic phosphorus