However, measuring the villus
height by itself does not take into account the variations which may
occur because of increased intestinal diameter. To avoid this, in the
present study two measures were introduced: Id:Vh ratio and villus
area. Although statistical analysis revealed significant increases in
villus height in fish fed inulin and/or B. subtilis, Id:Vh ratio and
villus area data showed that these differences were due to differences
in the diameter of the intestine. These findings are in
accordance with another previous study in gilthead sea bream fed
mannanoligosaccharides