THE EFFECT OF AUTOCLAVING A YEAST CULTURE OF SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAEON TURKEY POULT PERFORMANCE AND THE RETENTION OF GROSS ENERGY, AND SELECTED MINERALS

A study was conducted to determine the effects on nutrient retention i n turkey poults fed a diet containing an untreated or autoclaved yeast culture (YC). Isonitrogenous and isocalorife diets consisting of corn -soybean meal (CS, control), CS + YC (10 g kg(-1) XP yeast culture(R), Saccharomyces cerevisiae) or CS + 10 g kg(-1) autoclaved YC (CS + AYC ; autoclaved at 121 degrees C and 0.8 kg cm(-2) for 35 min) were fed t o 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 e xcreta 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. The addition of the untreated and autoclaved yeast culture to the poul t diets had no effect (P > 0.05) on weight gains or feed conversion me asured between Days 1 and 28. There were increased (P < 0.05) retentio ns 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 r esults indicate that autoclaving impairs the ability of the YC to incr ease the utilization of selected nutrients in starting poults.