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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1424073
This article is part of the Research Topic Threats and Strategies of Nutritional Metabolic Disorders and Poisoning Diseases in Ruminants View all 3 articles

Effects of Yeast Culture on Growth Performance, Immune Function, Antioxidant Capacity and Hormonal Profile in Mongolian Ram Lambs

Provisionally accepted
Shixiong Liu Shixiong Liu *Hui Chen Hui Chen Dacheng Liu Dacheng Liu
  • Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    As effective growth-promoters and immune-modulators, yeast fermented products have shown positive effects in ruminants. To explore the mechanisms of yeast culture promoting growth and regulating immunity, this study investigated the effects of yeast culture, and β-glucan as one of its main active ingredients, on the growth performance, immune function, antioxidant capacity and hormonal profile in Mongolian ram lambs. One hundred and five Mongolian ram lambs were randomly assigned to 3 groups, with 35 replicates in each group. The dietary treatments were: total mixed ration (TMR) as the control group, TMR supplemented with 50-70 g/kg yeast culture (YC) or 75 mg/kg β-glucan. The test period was 137 days. All the sheep were weighed and 6 serum samples were collected in each group on days 0, 30, 60, 90 and 130, respectively. The results showed that both YC and β-glucan could promote the growth performance with increased average daily gain and decreased feed to weight gain ratio. Moreover, these two feed additives facilitated the immune function by selectively increasing the serum levels of lysozyme, IgG, IgM, INF-γ, TNF-α and some interleukins (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6 and IL-8); ameliorated the antioxidant capacity with higher total antioxidant capacity and enzyme activities of catalase and glutathione peroxidase; altered the metabolism-associated hormone levels with higher growth hormone and thyroid hormone T3 but lower cortisol and insulin. In conclusion, both YC and β-glucan could improve the growth performance, immune function and antioxidant capacity, and regulate the serum levels of metabolismassociated hormones, thus exerting effects of promoting growth and improving immune function. Therefore, YC could be considered as a suitable potential alternative strategy to antibiotics and be used as an animal feed additive. This article provides a theoretical basis for the clinical application of such yeast fermented preparations in mutton sheep husbandry.

    Keywords: Yeast culture, Production performance, Immunity, antioxidant function, Hormonal level

    Received: 27 Apr 2024; Accepted: 24 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Chen and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shixiong Liu, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.