Effect of yeast culture supplementation on carcass yield and humoral immune response of broiler chicks

M Fathi,A AlKhalaf,A AlHomidan,M AlDamegh,S AlMansour

doi:10.5455/vetworld.2012.651-657

Abstract

Aim: A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplemental yeast culture (Diamond V XPC Yeast Culture; YC) in broiler diets on carcass characteristics and humoral immune response. Materials and Methods: A total of 240 one-day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly assigned to four YC dietary treatments of 60 birds each. The dietary treatments were 0 (control), 1, 1.25 and 1.5 g YC/kg diet over 42 d. Results and Discussion: The results revealed that the birds fed yeast cultures had statistically increased (P < 0.05) body weight from control birds only at 5-6 weeks of age. The highest inclusion level (1.5g/kg) recorded the best weight. The broiler chicks fed a diet supplemented with 1.25g/kg had the lowest mortality rate over the whole period of the experiment. The birds given the highest level of yeast (1.5g/kg) had significantly (P < 0.05) higher percentage of major and minor breast muscles compared with the others that fed a basal diet. A significantly (P < 0.01) increase in IgM titer was noticed in birds fed diet containing YC levels more than 1g/kg at 7 days post-injection with sheep red blood cells. Likewise, broilers fed a diet containing 1.25g/kg exhibited a higher level of antibody titer against Newcastle disease virus at latter age (on d 42) compared with the other groups. Conclusion: The data suggest improvement in growth performance, carcass yield and humoral immunity of broilers fed yeast culture supplementation diet.

Highlights

In recent years, there has been a great attention to minimize or completely avoid usage of antibiotics in both animal and poultry feeding, as well as an increasing consumer concern for poultry drug residues in meat and eggs
As these bans are being considered, non-antibiotic alternatives like yeast and yeast products are widely used in poultry rations to improve growth and productive performance
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of different dietary concentrations of yeast culture on growth performance, carcass yield and humoral immunity in broiler chicks

Summary

Introduction

There has been a great attention to minimize or completely avoid usage of antibiotics in both animal and poultry feeding, as well as an increasing consumer concern for poultry drug residues in meat and eggs. In 2006, the European Union imposed a complete ban on the use of antibiotics in animal feed as growth promotants. As these bans are being considered, non-antibiotic alternatives like yeast and yeast products are widely used in poultry rations to improve growth and productive performance. Effects of yeast products on production and their mode of action in poultry have been reported [1]. Whole yeast products or yeast cell wall components have been used to improve growth and affect the physiology, morphology, and microbiology of the intestinal tract of both broiler chicks [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] and turkey poults [10,11,12,13,14,15]. Inclusion of yeast in the diet has been shown to improve livability and decrease mortality [16]

Objectives

Methods

Results