maintained at 0–4 °C. The pyloric caeca and anterior intestine were sampled for measuring the levels of pancreatic proteases (trypsin, chymotrypsin and total protease activities) and intestinal brush border enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, maltase and aminopeptidase-N). Quantification of digestive enzymes was conducted as previously described in Gisbert et al. (2009). The specific activity was expressed as international units or milli-international units per milligram of protein (IU or mIU mg protein