Effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and/or mannanoligosaccharide on performance, blood parameters and intestinal microbiota of broiler chicks

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mannanoligosaccharide in single or in combination on growth performance, blood parameters and intestinal microbiota in 120, one-d-old, Ross 308 male broiler chicks raised from 1 to 21 days of age. There were 4 dietary treatments; (i) control, (ii) MOS (2 kg/ton feed), (iii) yeast (2 kg/ton feed) and (iv) yeast (2 kg/ton feed) + MOS (2 kg/ton feed). Weight gain and feed intake of the broilers were significantly influenced by the addition of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with/without MOS. The results suggest that supplementation of S. cerevisiae w/wo MOS to diets for growing broilers might enhance counts of LAB and yeast in the gut. In addition, the S. cerevisiae supplementation w/wo MOS to diets might have a negative effect on E. coli.