The effect of autoclaving a yeast culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on turkey poult performance and the retention of gross energy, and selected minerals

A study was conducted to determine the effects on nutrient retention in turkey poults fed a diet containing an untreated or autoclaved yeast culture (YC). Isonitrogenous and isocalorific diets consisting of corn-soybean meal (CS, control), CS + YC (10 g kg−1 XP yeast culture®, Saccharomyces cerevisiae) or CS + 10 g kg−1 autoclaved YC (CS + AYC; autoclaved at 121 °C and 0.8 kg cm−2 for 35 min) were fed to Wrolstad Medium White poults from Days 1 to 28. Between Days 21 and 28, the diets were marked with 3 g kg−1 chromic oxide and feed and excreta samples were collected between Days 26 and 28. The samples were analyzed for gross energy (GE), Ca, P, B, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, and Zn. dition of the untreated and autoclaved yeast culture to the poult diets had no effect (P > 0.05) on weight gains or feed conversion measured between Days 1 and 28. There were increased (P < 0.05) retentions of dietary GE, Ca, P, B, K, Mg, and Mn observed only in poults fed the CS + YC diet when compared with the CS and CS + AYC diets. These results indicate that autoclaving impairs the ability of the YC to increase the utilization of selected nutrients in starting poults.