EVALUATION OF THE ZOOTECHNICAL PARAMETERS OF BROILER CHICKENS PROVIDING DIFFERENT PERCENTAGES OF Saccharomyces cerevisiae IN THE FOOD

Abstract

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (PcSc) belongs to the family of probiotics and is considered to be one of the most promising alternatives to replace the use of antibiotic growth promoters (APC) in animal feed, as these have not been used properly in causing microbial resistance to antibiotic therapies in animals and in humans. The new systems of broiler production must adapt to the growing demands of a population increasingly critical of products of animal origin. For this reason, the implementation of different alternatives to the APC can be used in feeding chickens, and doesn’t create a risk to animal or human health. In this study the zootechnical parameters were evaluated: weight gain, and feed conversion efficiency in broilers, providing a dose of 1 % and 2 % commercial yeast product in total daily food; 90 mixed breed Cobb chickens day old to 42 days old were used. They were randomized into three groups: control: food without adding yeast; Treatment 1: 1 % yeast PcSc in food; Treatment 2: 2 % yeast PcSc on food, diet of the three groups was based on a commercial concentrate that met the nutritional requirements for the breed, the birds were subjected to the same management conditions and sanitation. Using simple random sampling; each group of 30 individuals and 3 replicates of 10 individuals per treatment were administered. The experimental group with 1 % PcSc finished with more weight relative to the other groups, while feed conversion was better for the animals of treatment 1, and increased the feed efficiency obtained in the group with 2 % yeast (P <0.05). These results demonstrate that the inclusion of yeast PcSc in food, increase the production parameters of broilers and thereby the gains poultry farmers.