Protective and immunostimulatory effects of in-feed preparations of an anticoccidial, a probiotic, a vitamin-selenium complex, and Ferulago angulata extract in broiler chickens infected with Eimeria species

Table 3 Antibody response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC; log₂)¹ observed in broiler chickens infected with a mixture of Eimeria species at 14 d of age and provided with diets supplemented with salinomaycin (Sal), probiotic (Pro), combination of vitamin E, C, and selenium (ECSe), and F. angulate extracts at the levels of 200 and 400 m/kg (FAE200 and FAE400, respectively) in experiment 2

	Primary anti-SRBC antibody response (d 14)			Secondary anti-SRBC antibody response (d 21)
Treatments	IgG	IgM	Total antibody	IgG	IgM	Total antibody
NC²	1.64	1.91	3.55^ab	4.61^ab	3.63	8.24^a
PC³	1.23	1.20	2.43^c	2.80^c	3.02	5.82^b
Sal + infected	1.61	2.01	3.62^ab	4.75^a	3.22	7.97^a
Pro + infected	1.64	2.19	3.83^a	5.20^a	3.01	8.21^a
ECSe + infected	1.68	1.93	3.61^ab	4.75^a	3.24	7.99^a
FAE200 + infected	1.40	1.44	2.84^bc	3.62^bc	3.58	7.20^ab
FAE400 + infected	1.56	2.02	3.58^ab	4.84^a	3.54	8.38^a
SEM⁴	0.286	0.411	0.330	0.347	0.404	0.569
P-value	0.711	0.089	0.040	0.001	0.521	0.009

^a-cMeans within a column not sharing the same superscript are different at P < 0.05
¹Values are means of 10 cages per treatment combination with 2 male broiler chickens (n = 10 per treatment). The average of 2 birds per replicate cage was applied for statistical analysis of these variables
²Negative control (not treated and uninfected)
³Positive control (not treated, but infected)
⁴Pooled standard error of mean

ISSN: 1746-6148