Effects of stachyose on the development of digestive organ and the intestinal morphology in broilers.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of gradient dietary stachyose on the development of digestive organ and the intestinal morphology in broilers.A total of 192 1 day-old male Arbor Acre broilers were randomly allotted into 4 treatments of 6 cages which contained 8 birds and were fed one of the 4 diets with stachyose preparation(STP) added to an oligosaccharide-low basal diet of corn-SPC at the dosage of 0,0.50%,1.00% and 2.00%,respectively.The results indicated that supplemental STP increased absolute and relative weight of digestive organs in broilers to various extents,especially for the caecum and the colon-rectum,and the inclusion of 0.50% STP had a positive effect on the mucosal morphology with maximum villus height in duodenum,jejunum and ileum,minimum crypt depth in jejunum and ileum and maximum V/C values in jejunum and ileum.