Body weight and body weight gain
No significant differences were observed between the
CoF and CoD groups in body weight at 21 days of age
(CoF group: 6.73 ± 0.29 kg vs. CoD group: 6.17 ± 0.31
kg; P > 0.05) and body weight gain during the suckling
period (CoF group: 5.17 ± 0.25 kg vs. CoD group: 4.55
± 0.26 kg; P > 0.05).
The concentrations of fecal IgA and plasma
IgG
The concentration of fecal IgA in the CoF group was
more than twice as high as that in the CoD group at 21
days of age (CoF group: 1.14 ± 0.15 mg/g vs. CoD group:
0.43 ± 0.12 mg/g; P < 0.01; Fig. 1).
The concentration of plasma IgG at 28 days of age was
also significantly higher in the CoF group than that in
the CoD group (CoF group: 2.76 ± 0.17 mg/mL vs.
CoD group: 1.00 ± 0.16 mg/mL; P < 0.01; Fig. 2).
Number of blood leukocyte subsets
(Table 2)
A significant difference between the CoF and CoD
groups was observed only in the number of blood B cells
(CoF group: 1.15 ± 0.07 × 105 cells/mL vs. CoD group:
0.74 ± 0.13 × 105 cells/mL; P < 0.05).
The number of whole T cells in the blood tended to be
higher in the CoF group than in the CoD group, but the
difference was not significant (CoF group: 7.36 ± 0.49 ×
105 cells/mL vs. CoD group: 6.25 ± 0.52 × 105 cells/mL;
P > 0.05). The numbers of Th, Tc and DP T cells were
not different between the CoF and CoD groups (P> 0.05).
In contrast, the number of monocytes in the blood
was slightly lower in the CoF group than that in the
CoD group, but a significant differencewas not observed
(CoF group: 0.47 ± 0.04 × 105 cells/mL vs. CoD group:
0.66 ± 0.12 × 105 cells/mL; P > 0.05).