Fig. 1

Body weight (a) and plasma metabolite [glucose (b), triglycerides (c) and (d) non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA)] responses of hatchling chicks. Each value represents the least square mean (LSM) and error (LSE) of five cockerels. The first three data points represent fasting treatment levels (D0FAST4h; D1FAST24h and D2FAST48h), while the last three data points (shaded area) represent refeeding treatment levels (D2REFED4h, D3REFED24h and D4REFED48h). The analysis of variance (ANOVA), using Type III error, indicates overall level of significance (*P ≤ 0.05; ***P ≤ 0.0001) for the main effects of fasting-refeeding treatments (T) and age (A), and their interaction (T x A) [shown in shaded area]. A single asterisk, below or above treatment points, indicates a significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) for each pairwise contrast between a fully-fed (FED) control group and a fasting-refeeding treatment. Note that the D2FED control group was used for both the D2FAST48h and D2REFED4h contrast