Effects of Yeast Culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Supplementation on Growth Performance, Fecal Score, and Nutrient Digestibility of Weaning Pigs

Weanling pigs often face post-weanling challenges, such as diarrhea, low feed intake, BW loss which can affect the health and the economic value of rearing weanling pigs. Interest in the use of yeast culture as feed supplements for pigs has increased markedly in recent years. Fully fermented yeast culture (YC) is a dried product containing yeast and various metabolites of yeast fermentation. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of yeast culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) on growth performance, fecal score and nutrient digestibility of weanling pigs. A total of 50 crossed healthy weaning pigs [(Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc] with an average body weight (BW) of 7.46 ± 1.60 kg (28d of age) were used in a 6 -week experiment. Pigs were randomized allotted to 1 of 2 experimental diets according to initial BW in a randomly complete block design. There were 5 replicated pens per treatment with 5 pigs per pen. The experiment was divided into 3 phases (Phase 1, 1- 2 wk; Phase 2, 2- 4 wk; Phase 3, 4- 6 wk). Dietary treatments were: 1) CON: basal diet, 2) CON + 0.50% yeast culture. The data were analyzed using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedures of SAS (2013), and significant differences among the means were determined using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test method. During phase 1, average daily gain (ADG) in CON diet is 302 kg, ADG in YC diet is 328 kg, average daily feed intake (ADFI) in CON diet is 391kg, and ADFI in YC diet is 421 kg. ADG and ADFI in phase 1 were significantly increased (P < 0.05) in weanling pigs fed yeast culture supplementation diets compared with weanling pigs fed CON diet. Additionally, during phase 3 and overall, G/F was significantly increased (P < 0.05) in yeast culture supplementation group compared with pigs fed CON diet. No differences in nutrient digestibility and fecal scores were in pigs fed YC supplemented diet (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the supplementation of YC in the diet positively affected the growth performance, but no significant effects were seen in fecal score and nutrient digestibility of weanling pigs.