GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND HAEMATOLOGICAL INDICES OF BROILER FINISHER BIRDS FED DIETS CONTAINING SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the growth performance and haematological indices of broiler finisher fed varying levels of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. One hundred and twenty (120) four weeks old broiler birds were used for the experiment, The one hundred and twenty (120) birds were weighed and randomly allocated into four (4) treatment groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4) having thirty (30) birds per treatment. Each treatment was replicated three (3) times with ten (10) birds per replicate. Treatment 1 served as the control and did not contain any Saccharomyces cerevisiae supplement, while treatments 2, 3 and 4 contained 0.7, 1.2 and 1.7 g/kg of basal diet respectively of Saccharomyces cerevisiae supplement. The experiment lasted for four weeks. Results showed that there were no significant (p>0.05) differences among treatments in initial body weight and average daily feed intake while significant (p<0.05) differences among treatments
existed in the final body weight, average daily weight gain, and feed conversion ratio. The study also revealed that there were no significant (p>0.05) differences among treatments in haemaglobin concentration, packed cell volume, white blood cell count, red blood cell count, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemaglobin, and mean corpuscular haemaglobin concentration. Based on the results obtained in this study, it was concluded that any of the treatment groups T2, T3 and T4 is recommended to enhance broiler production.