Inclusion of sugar cane yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in broiler chickens diets

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of sugar cane yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), produced in the sugar cane distillery, in broiler chickens diets. Six hundred and seventy two one day old male broiler chicks, AGROSS line, were alloted to a completely randomized design with six treatments and one hundred and twelve birds per treatment, being eight replicates of fourteen birds per treatment. Treatments consisted of six isoproteic (22 and 20% of crude protein for initial and growing periods, respectively) and isocaloric (3000 and 3150 kcal ME/kg for initial and growing periods, respectively) diets. These diets were formulated based on corn, soybean meal and different inclusion levels of yeast of sugar cane (YSC). The treatments were: T-1 = Basal Diet (BD); T-2 = BD + 1.5% YSC; T-3 = BD + 3.0% YSC; T-4 = BD + 4.5% YSC; T-5 = BD + 6.0% YSC; T-6 = BD + 7.5% YSC, resulting in six inclusion levels of YSC. Statistical analysis did not show any significant difference among the treatments for weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion, carcass yield, percentage of abdominal fat and moisture of the litter. According to the results, it can be concluded that it is possible the inclusion of up to 7.5% YSC in broiler diets without affecting their performance.