Table 1. Microbiological quantification of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus spp. and Streptococcus spp. in contact lesions in the tibiotarsal joint of broiler chickens

Grade	Microrganism (CFU/mL)
	E. coli	Staphylococcus spp.	Streptococcus spp.
Control	4.70×101,a	2.73×102,a	1.80×103,a
Grade 1	9.30×101,a	4.40×102,a	1.16×103,a
Grade 2	1.50×102,a	8.10×102,a	1.11×103,a
Grade 3	4.50×104,b	2.60×105,b	4.80×104,a

Means followed by different letters in the columns, differ from each other by the Kruskal-Wallis and the Wilcoxon test at 5% probability (p<0.05).