Supplementation of live yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as natural feed additives on growth performance, meat quality and physiological status of broiler chickens

This study examined how supplementing broiler chickens with live yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ) affected their growth performance, carcass features, meat quality, hematological parameters, serum metabolic profile, and cecal bacterial counts. A total of 192 Arbor Acres broilers were randomly assigned to three treatment groups (8 replications, 8 chicks each). The dietary treatments were as follows: live yeast (600 mg/kg of basal diet), antibiotic (100 mg chlortetracycline /kg of basal diet), and control. Compared to control group, live yeast supplementation showed better feed conversion ratio (1.63 vs 1.83, P < 0.05) and average daily weight grain (53.06 g/d vs 48.12 g/d, P < 0.05) in whole study period. However, there were no appreciable variations ( P > 0.05) in the groups' respective feed consumption, internal organ weights and carcass traits. At 42 days of age, the broilers fed diets containing live yeast had a lower 7-day drip loss, a lower cooking loss, and a higher breast muscle pH at 45 min post-mortem ( P < 0.05) than the control group. Supplementing with live yeast also decreased serum triglycerides, total cholesterol, and heterophil/lymphocyte ratio ( P < 0.05). In comparison to the control, cecal bacterial examination showed lower E. coli and Salmonella spp. levels and higher Lactobacillus spp. counts in the LY and antibiotic groups. The findings indicated that inclusion of live yeast ( S. cerevisiae ) to the broilers diet can positively impact the development of growth, quality of meat, blood variables, and cecal microbiota of broilers. In conclusion, live yeast at 600 mg/kg of diet can be a viable substitute for antibiotic growth promoters for organic broiler production.