23. Effect of dietary yeast and oligosaccharide on growth performances of broiler

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding graded levels of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and oligosaccharide on broiler performance. Oneday old Cobb-500 broiler chicks (n=150) were randomly allocated into five treatments. Each dietary treatment consisted of 3 replicates having 10 chicks in each replication. The dietary treatment contained no live yeast and oligosaccharide considered as control (T0) and the other four treatments were T1 (1g yeast and 0.5g oligosaccharide/kg feed), T2 (2g yeast and 0.5g oligosaccharide/kg feed), T3 (1g yeast and 1g oligosaccharide/kg feed) and T4 (2g yeast and 1g oligosaccharide/kg feed). During the experimental periods of 4 weeks, average live weight and feed intake of the birds were recorded, and body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, survivability, flock uniformity values were calculated. Growth performance parameters were significantly (P<0.05) affected by experimental diets. Birds fed 1g yeast and 1g oligosaccharide/kg feed gained superior body weights compared to the control, and other dietary treatments. The mean body weight gains of different treatment groups were significantly higher (P<0.05) than control group. The groups fed diets containing 1g yeast and 1g oligosaccharide showed lower feed intake but better feed efficiency rate compared to the control. The inclusion of different dietary treatments had no significant (P>0.05) effects on survivability and flock uniformity. It is concluded that live yeast and oligosaccharide can be included in broiler diet at the rate of 1g yeast and 1g oligosaccharide/kg feed for better growth performance.