Effect of live Saccharomyces cerevisiae (NCDC-49) supplementation on growth performance and rumen fermentation pattern in local goat

Abstract

Twenty female kids of local goats (6.42±0.28 kg, 3-month-old) were divided into two equal groups. Kids in experimental group received Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCDC-49 (5.6×10⁹ cells/head/day) whereas the control was unsupplemented. This study lasted for 120 days. Rumen liquor was collected for three consecutive days after two months and at the end of the experiment before offering feed. The body weight gain, height at withers and heart girth were higher with superior feed conversion in the treatment group. Colony forming units were higher with lower NH₃ concentration in yeast culture fed kids. It is concluded that S. cerevisiae NCDC-49 supplementation improved growth and feed conversion efficiency and had some positive influence on the rumen fermentation parameters.

Keywords:

• Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• NCDC-49
• goats
• rumen fermentation

Introduction

Non-pathogenic live micro-organisms are being advocated for incorporation in compounded feeds for increasing animal productivity. Argüello (2011) also discusses that nowadays the relationship between nutrition and pathology plays a central role in the goat research trends for the improvement of the performance. Among the different microbial feed additives, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus oryzae are more effective in rumen, whereas lactobacilli are effective during pre-ruminant stage (Khuntia & Chaudhary 2002). S. cerevisiae may multiply in the rumen or stimulate continuous culture and confer beneficial effects on rumen fermentation characteristics (Robinson 2002; Sauvant et al. 2004) and influence several rumen parameters such as pH and volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentration (Robinson 2002). Data from a wide range of controlled studies and field trials suggest that yeast culture (YC) supplements can have a significant role in strategies for economically enhancing the performance of ruminant animals (Panda et al. 1995; Dawson & Tricarico 2002; Jinturkar et al. 2009). The effects of YC on animal productivity are strain-dependant. There is a lot of variation in the performance of same animal fed on different species of probiotic, or even the same species but different strain of probiotic. Agarwal et al. (2002) reported that NCDC-49 has proved to be the best in enhancing the performance of calves. However, few reports using limited strains are available on the performance of goats and there is a scope of further research using more specialised new strains. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to assess the effect of live YC (S. cerevisiae NCDC-49) supplementation on growth performance and ruminal fermentation pattern in local goat.

Materials and methods

Experiment was conducted at Sheep and Goat Farm, LPM division, IVRI, Izatnagar. Twenty female kids of local goats weighing 6.42±0.28 kg (3-month-old) were divided into two groups of 10 each. S. cerevisiae NCDC-49 was supplemented in experimental group, and the second group without any supplementation was control. Standard management practices were followed under uniform conditions.

S. cerevisiae NCDC-49 was procured from NDRI, Karnal, Haryana, and was maintained by repeated sub-culturing on agar slants. The medium consisted of 3, 5, 10 and 15 g of yeast extracts, peptone, glucose and agar, respectively. Distilled water was added to make the volume 1000 ml. A loopful of YC was transferred aseptically to required amount of sterilised broth/liquid medium (without agar) and the tubes were incubated for 24 hours at 39°C. Untreated feed (1000 g) mixed with 1000 ml of tap water was inoculated with the 24-hour-old YC (5% of concentrate) and incubated for 24 hours at 39°C. Fresh culture was prepared after every 15 days. Fermented concentrate feed with colony forming unit (cfu) 5.6×10⁹/g was fed at 150 g/head/day to the kids of treatment group. It was ensured that 150 g fermented concentrate offered to kids was consumed before giving the subsequent unfermented concentrate required by the kid.

Animals were weighed and body measurements taken fortnightly in the morning before offering feed and water. Dry matter intake (DMI) from concentrate and green fodder was calculated separately. All feed samples were analysed for proximate composition as per the standard procedures (AOAC 2000).

Rumen liquor was collected through stomach tube for three consecutive days after two months of experimental feeding and at end of the experiment before offering feed for analysing pH, total volatile fatty acids (TVFA, Barnett & Reid 1956), ammonia-nitrogen (NH₃-N, Weatherburn 1967), total nitrogen (AOAC 2000) and cfu.

The data obtained from the experiment were analysed as per the standard methods of statistical analyses (Snedecor & Cochran 1994).

Results and discussion

The mean body weight gain of kids (Table 1) was significantly (P<0.01) higher in the experimental than to control group. The growth trend was similar to that observed by Haddad and Goussous (2005) and Jinturkar et al. (2009) in lambs supplemented with live yeast.

Table 1. Effect of feeding live YC on growth performance and body measurement (cm) in kids.

Parameters	Control	Treatment
Average daily gain (g/d)	35.05^A±0.40	43.81^B±0.41
DMI (g/d)	311.31±9.49	330.44±7.36
Feed:gain ratio	8.89^A±0.30	7.65^B±0.15
Body measurements
Body length
Initial	38.85±0.65	38.85±1.06
Final	48.5±0.87	49.75±0.62
Height at withers
Initial	42.60±0.90	42.60±0.73
Final	50.12^a±0.55	53.10^b±0.34
Heart girth
Initial	43.87±0.40	43.85±0.45
Final	52.17^a±0.38	55.2^b±0.32

Note: Means bearing different uppercase superscript letters in column differ significantly (P<0.01). Means bearing different lowercase superscript letters in column differ significantly (P<0.05). YC, yeast culture.

The overall feed intake in terms of DMI per kilogram gain was significantly higher in live yeast fed group. The more DMI and relatively more average daily gain (ADG) in live yeast fed groups subsequently lead to improvement in the feed conversion efficiency (FCE) value. Similarly Haddad and Goussous (2005) for lambs and Jinturkar et al. (2009) in goat also reported improvement in FCE due to yeast feeding.

Height at withers and heart girth was statistically (P < 0.05) higher in S. cerevisiae supplemented kids. Whereas, there was no difference in body length (Table 1) between the groups. All the body measurements are in agreement with Jayabal et al. (2008).

There was no effect on overall pH due to live YC feeding (Table 2) and this result also supports earlier findings. In contrast, increase of pH in rumen liquor has been reported on YC supplemented bucks and kids (Abd El-Ghani 2004; Elseed & Abusamra 2007).

Table 2 Effect of feeding live YC on rumen biochemical parameters in SRL of kids.

	Two months		Four months
Parameters	Control	Treatment	Control	Treatment
pH	6.92±0.05	6.99±0.023	6.91±0.018	6.97±0.026
TVFA (mmol/dl)	4.46^a±0.18	5.79^b±0.14	4.50^a±0.14	5.83^b±0.06
NH3-N (mg/dl)	10.034^a±2.53	8.84^b±0.15	10.26^a±0.31	9.35^b±0.16
Total N (mg/dl)	99.20±9.52	103.6±9.36	99.82±7.10	107.24±9.14
cfu ×10^5/ml	0.48^a±0.11	5.25^b±0.44	0.44^a±0.27	4.88^b±0.28

Note: Means bearing different lowercase superscript letter in columns differ significantly (P<0.01). YC, yeast culture.

TVFA concentration was significantly higher (P<0.01) in live YC fed kids at 2 and 4 months. Similar result was reported by Andrighetto et al. (1993) in sheep and observed higher TVFA concentration in rumen liquor when YC was supplemented. A higher production of TVFA in the kids of live yeast fed group indirectly indicated the establishment of cellulolytic bacteria or the stimulation of cellulolytic organism by yeast. Conversely, Kamra et al. (2002) found no effect on TVFA concentration in rumen liquor of the YC group.

Mean NH₃-N concentration was lower in live YC fed animals (P<0.01). A similar decrease in ammonia concentration had been observed by Eweedah et al. (2005), Gaafar et al. (2009). The reduction in NH₃-N level in the rumen liquor by live yeast feeding is an indication of improvement in protein metabolism rather than reduction in proteolytic, peptidolytic or deaminative activity of the rumen microbes or might be due to increased bacterial growth.

Total nitrogen contents did not differ in the two groups. Maurya (1993) in goats and Prahalada et al. (2001) in calves found no effect of live yeast feeding on the concentration of total nitrogen in strained rumen liquor (SRL). Such findings can be attributed to differences in nitrogen availability in feeds and by nitrogen recycling mechanism in animals.

The cfu per millilitre of S. cerevisiae in SRL of live YC fed group showed significant improvement in experimental group.

These results were supported by the finding of Kumar et al. (1994). In the contrary, Agarwal et al. (2002) observed no effect of probiotic feeding on the log number of cells of lactic acid bacteria, yeast and coliform bacteria in the faeces and rumen liquor of calf at any age when 100 g fermented feed was fed to the animals containing S. cerevisiae NCDC-49 at 10⁶ cfu/ml. The difference in various experiments might be due to the dose of the live yeast and the type of the feed given to the animal.

Incidence of diarrhoea was recorded in kids during the experiment. A total of four kids (40%) in control group suffered from diarrhoea as compared with one kid (10%) in the live yeast fed group during the entire period of the experiment. The incidence of diarrhoea outbreak repeated in control group (40%) with less severity. Kids fed live YC required fewer days of antibiotic therapy than those in control group. Lohnert et al. (2001) and Agarwal et al. (2002) observed lower incidence of diarrhoea after feeding of S. cerevisiae.

It can be concluded that feeding of S. cerevisiae NCDC-49 has a significant effect on higher live weight gain, better feed conversion efficiency and the rumen fermentation pattern, especially NH₃-N, TVFA and cells of yeasts.