Influence of dietary supplementation of saccharomyces cerevisiae on broiler chicken fed aflatoxin

The dietary supplementation of Saccharomyces cerevisae (SC) was evaluated for its possible beneficial affects in broiler chicks exposed to aflatoxicosis. Atotal of 120 commercial broilers of one week age were divided into 4 groups of 6 replicates each with 5 chicks per replicate. One group was fed basal diet to serve as control, while the remaining three groups were fed the standard basal diet along with SC (0.05%) or aflatoxin (400 ppb) or aflatoxin (400 ppb) plus SC (0.05%) till 42 d of age. Dietary supplementation of SC showed no influence on body weight, feed intake and feed conversion efficiency. SC supplementation raised serum cholesterol and ready to cook yields to an intermediate level between the control and the aflatoxin group. Serum protein and alkaline phosphatase activity were not affected by the dietary treatments. Weights of liver, giblets and kidneys were intermediate in the SC supplemented aflatoxin group. Antibody titre against SRBC inoculation were not affected while the CBH response to PHA-P inoculation was moderately improved. SC decreased significantly (P<0.01) the liver fat content and showed no effect on spleen weight and muscle fat content. It was concluded that SC at 0.05% level in diet could not alleviate growth depressing effects of aflatoxin in broilers but showed moderate beneficial effects on serum cholesterol content, dressing yields, certain organ weights and cellular immune response.