Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Culture Promotes the Performance of Fattening Sheep by Enhancing Nutrients Digestibility and Rumen Development

Abstract

Paraprobiotics are potential agents for improving animal health and performance. This experiment investigated the effect of dietary supplementation of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) culture (YC) on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, rumen development and microbiome of fattening sheep. Ninety male Hu sheep weighed 38 ± 1.47 kg were randomly assigned to three treatments: CON diet (basal diet), LYC diet (basal diet supplied with 10 and 20 g/d yeast culture at the early and late stages, respectively), and HYC diet (basal diet supplied with 20 and 40 g/d yeast culture at the early and late stages, respectively). Treatments (LYC or HYC) were sprinkled on the feed surface according to the required dosage before feeding the basal diet to each sheep throughout the trial. The trial included early (60 days) and later (30 days) fattening periods. The results showed that average daily gain and feed efficiency were higher (p < 0.05) in the LYC group compared with CON in later and whole stages. Digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF were higher (p < 0.05) in LYC and HYC compared with CON. The retained N, the utilization efficiency of N and the biological value of N were higher (p < 0.05) in LYC compared with CON and HYC. Rumen NH3-N was higher (p < 0.05) in LYC and HYC. The papillary height of the rumen was higher (p < 0.05) in LYC when compared with CON and HYC, whereas rumen wall thickness and muscular layer thickness were higher (p < 0.05) in HYC compared with CON and LYC. The dressing percentage of LYC and HYC was higher (p < 0.05) compared with CON. The diversity, richness and structure of rumen microbiota showed no significant difference (p > 0.05); however, still observed remarkable increases in the relative abundance of several specific genera including Succiniclasticum and Fibrobacter with increasing doses of yeast culture. In addition, at the ASV level, ASV83, ASV123 (Succiniclasticum), and ASV148, ASV250 (Fibrobacter) were increased in YC groups. In conclusion, we confirmed that the supplementation of YC in diet could improve the growth and slaughter performance of fattening Hu sheep through improving nutrient digestion, especially nitrogen utilization, rumen microbial environment and the development of rumen epithelium, which proves the benefits of paraprobiotics in animal production.

Effects of yeast culture on in vitro ruminal fermentation and microbial community of high concentrate diet in sheep

“…YC is rich in B vitamins, trace elements, unknown nutrient factors, oligosaccharides, digestive enzymes, amino acids, organic acids and carbohydrates. In recent years, YC has been widely used in ruminants’ production, which can improve rumen fermentation mode and animal production performance (Gao and Geng 2022 ; Wang et al 2022a ). Our study investigated the effects of YC on the in vitro ruminal fermentation characteristics and microbial community of high concentrate diet in sheep.…”

“…After supplementation of YC, the activity of microorganisms in incubated ruminal fluid was enhanced. It might be that YC was rich in minerals, polysaccharides, small peptides and digestive enzymes, which promoted the rapid proliferation of ruminal microorganisms and thus increased the degradation rate of fermentation substrate (Wang et al 2022a ).…”

“…YC is mainly composed of yeast extracellular metabolites, variable culture medium after fermentation, cell wall components and a small number of inactive yeast cells (Wang et al 2023 ). In addition, YC is rich in nutrients, including amino acids, vitamins, oligosaccharides and unidentified growth factors, which are conducive to promoting production performance and enhancing gastrointestinal function of animals (Wang et al 2022a ). YC can provide essential nutrients mentioned above for lactic acid bacteria, such as Megasphaera elsdenii and Selenomonas ruminantium , which stimulate the growth of lactate-utilizing bacteria, thereby converting excessive lactic acid into volatile fatty acid (VFA), reducing the accumulation of lactic acid in the rumen and stabilizing the ruminal pH (Gao and Geng 2022 ).…”

Dietary β-hydroxybutyric acid improves the growth performance of young ruminants based on rumen microbiota and volatile fatty acid biosynthesis

“…Previous studies in humans and mice found that ketone bodies increased the blood and luminal BHB (Olson et al, 2018 ; Ang et al, 2020 ). This might be due to the specific anatomy of rumen epithelium that utilized more BHB or VFAs for its rapid development of the ketogenic capacity in young ruminants (Lane et al, 2002 ; Abdelsattar et al, 2022b ; Wang et al, 2022 ). In the meantime, a low dose of BHB feeding increased rumen VFAs, including acetate, propionate, and butyrate, while medium and high doses affected them.…”

Bioconversion of alperujo into an alternative feed for ruminants by pretreatment with live yeasts and/or exogenous fibrolytic enzymes

“…Recent researches have also proved that incorporation of live yeasts (LY) containing Saccharomyces cerevisiae in rumen feed is beneficial to animals. In the rumen, these probiotics scavenge oxygen, stabilize rumen pH, and produce several beneficial nutrient cofactors such as organic acids, peptides, and vitamins that stimulate and facilitate the growth and proliferation of the beneficial rumen microbiota (Elghandour et al 2022), resulting in improved of nutriment digestibility, feed palatability, growth performance and milk production, animal health, and providing a clear economic advantage for sheep, buffalo, calf, and cow breeding (Anjum et al 2018;Villot et al 2019;Wang et al 2022;Xue et al 2022;Hiltz et al 2023). In recent years, many experiments have proved that fermenting feeds such as potato peel, orange pulp, sobyan meals, and food waste with Saccharomyces cerevisiae before offering them to animals is a good strategy to reduce their antinutritional factors and improve their nutritional value (Hassaan et al 2015;Maxwell et al 2018;Guerra et al 2021;Li et al 2022).…”