Radiation Degradation of β-Glucan Extracted from Brewer’s Yeast for Enhancing Growth Promotion and Immunostimulant Activities on Broilers

Table 1

The growth, meat quality, and immune index in blood of broiler chickens after 8 weeks of degraded β-glucan supplementation prepared by various doses.

Index	Dose for irradiation of β-glucan (kGy)
	Control	0 (unirradiated)	100	200	300
Survival ratio (%)	61.1^b	66.7^b	72.2^b	94.4^a	94.4^a
The weekly weight gain (g/bird/week)	16.3^d	17.8^c	18.8^b	20.63^a	20.7^a
The used feed (g/bird/week)	491.1^a	475.0^a	480.4^a	453.3^b	479.0^a
FCR (kg feed/kg body weight)	4.8^a	3.8^ab	3.7^ab	3.1^b	3.4^ab
Total body weight (g/bird)	1013^d	1096^c	1152^b	1256^a	1260^a
The eviscerated rate (%)	70.4^a	70.8^a	71.4^a	76.1^b	75^b
The carcass yield (%)	50.6^b	52.5^c	54^d	60.2^a	58.7^a
The thigh yield (%)	20.7^c	22.8^cd	21.7^c	26.3^b	25.4^a
The chest yield (%)	29.6^a	29.7^a	31.3^b	32.6^b	31.8^b
Leukocyte (10^3/mm^3)	29.3	30.4	30.4	30.9	31.1
Neutrophil (%)	62.3	61.0	63.0	63.7	63.0
Lymphocyte (%)	25.0	28.7	25.3	31.3	29.7
IBDV antibody (unit)	7980	13,366	11,903	14,770	5613
IBV antibody (unit)	131.5	151.7	175.8	181.9	156.0
NDV antibody (unit)	13.3	21.3	21.3	26.7	21.3

Control: without irradiated β-glucan supplementation. Mean values followed by the same letter within a row are not statistically significantly different according to Duncan’s multiple range test at .