Abstract
A five-week study was conducted to determine the effect of feeding varying levels of S. cerevisiae on carcass and organ characteristics of finishing broilers. One hundred and twenty 4-weeks old broilers of cobb strain were randomly assigned to four treatments (T1 = 0.6 g Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) kg–1 diet; T2 = 0.8 g SC kg–1 diet; T3 = 1.0 g SC kg–1 diet and T4 = 0.0 g SC kg–1 diet) with 30 birds per treatment and replicated twice with 15 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. Feed and water were provided ad libitum to the birds in a deep litter system. In the end, data on growth, carcass and organ indices generated from the study were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) among the treatments in the birds’ growth performance indices. However, significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in the birds’ values for liver weight, heart weight, shank length and thigh length with birds in T3 recording highest values of 61.30 g, 16.93 g and 12.00 cm for liver weight, heart weight and thigh length, respectively. It was thus concluded that finishing broilers fed 1.0 g of S. cerevisiae had superior carcass and organ characteristics than birds on the control and lower levels of inclusion.
Highlights
Poultry meat production still ranks as one of the most evolving industries in the world (Berri, 2001; 2007)
The non-significant difference in the growth performance of birds recorded in the current study suggests that S. cerevisiae plays little or no significant role in stimulating growth response in finishing broilers at the inclusion levels used in the present study
This result disagrees with several authors (Oyedeji et al, 2008; Afsharmanesh et al, 2010; Yalcin et al, 2013; Chuka, 2014; Onwurah et al, 2014; Yasar and Yegen, 2017) who recorded outstanding growth performances in poultry birds when fed S. cerevisiae
Summary
Poultry meat production still ranks as one of the most evolving industries in the world (Berri, 2001; 2007). In a bid to boost productivity, several dietary manipulations have been carried out on poultry, ranging from inclusion of growth promoters (Barreto et al, 2008; Mokhtari et al, 2010), hormones (Al-Dobaib and Mousa, 2009), organic acids (Ghazalah et al, 2011), enzymes (Chuka, 2014; Hossain et al, 2014), locally sourced additives (Onyimonyi et al, 2012; Olabode et al, 2013; Dim et al, 2018), etc Because most of these growth enhancers are either carcinogenic or have a residual carryover effect with the attendant health implications in man (Al-Dobaib and Mousa, 2009; Camila et al, 2012), it is pertinent to search for their alternatives which will enhance growth of the birds and ensure safe meat for the consuming populace. The use of fungi-based probiotics in the diets of food animals has been demonstrated to improve the quality of feed and performance of the animals (Shen, et al, 2009; Berrin, 2011; Ezema, 2012; Chuka, 2014; Hassan and Mohammed, 2014)
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