Trace Minerals Utilization and Production Efficiency of Broiler Chickens Fed Different Levels of Yeast Culture and Methionine

A study was conducted to determine the effect of supplemental dietary yeast culture Saccharomyces cerevisiae and methionine (cyc-meth) on trace mineral utilization and performance of broiler chicks. 400 Lohman chicks were randomly distributed into 16 pens (25 chicks/pen). Each pen was considered as a replicate and every 4 replicates received one of the following treatments: Control (C): basal diet of corn and soybean meal; T1, control diet + 2 kg cycmeth; T2, control diet + 3 kg cyc-meth; and T3, control diet + 4 kg cyc-meth. Cyc-meth supplementations significantly (P 0.01) increased the inorganic percentage and zinc concentration (P 0.05) in liver (dry and wet weight) of chicks from T1, T2 and T3 compared with the control group. Significantly lower concentration of cobalt (P 0.001) and higher copper concentration (P 0.05) in liver of chicks were observed from T2 and T3 compared to control and T1 groups, but no significant (P 0.05) effect of treatment was observed on manganese concentration. Moreover, chicks from T1 and T3 showed a significantly higher (P 0.05) final body weight and dressing percentage compared to C and T2. However, feed intake was significantly increased (P 0.05) with the addition of cyc-meth. Moreover, the partial budget showed that the addition of 2 kg cyc-meth to broiler diet had a positive net return over the control of 0.032 US$/ chicken and $ 0.334 US$ of marginal rate of return. In conclusion, the addition of cyc-meth to broiler diets improved growth rate, feed intake, zinc and copper utilization, and negatively affected the absorption of cobalt. However, the responses were not consistent with increasing the level of yeast culture in broiler diets