Influence of prebiotic yeast cell wall extracts on growth performance, carcase attributes, biochemical metabolites, and intestinal morphology and bacteriology of broiler chickens challenged with Salmonella typhimurium and Clostridium perfringens

The current experiment was conducted to examine the efficacy of yeast cell wall (YCW) supplementation on growth performance, carcase characteristics, serum biochemistry, ileum histological structure, and caecum bacterial populations of broilers subjected to Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) and Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) challenges from 11 to 35 d of age. A total of 360 mixed-sex Ross 308 broilers were randomly distributed to 5 treatments with 12 replications of 6 birds each as follows: control with no additive or challenge; S. typhimurium challenge; C. perfringens challenge; S. typhimurium + YCW; C. perfringens + YCW. The YCW was supplemented at a level of 0.5 g/kg. Compared to the control group, the unsupplemented challenged groups had deteriorated average daily gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and European production efficiency factor (EPEF) during all experimental periods (p < .001) and reduced dressing percentage, glucose (GLU) concentration (p < .001), and Lactobacillus population (p < .01). Moreover, the S. typhimurium-challenged group had reduced total protein (TP) level and elevated S. typhimurium count (p < .001), while the C. perfringens-challenged group showed decreased liveability (p < .001) and crypt depth (p < .05) and increased C. perfringens count (p < .01) than the control group. Supplementation of YCW under S. typhimurium challenge improved FCR and EPEF during all experimental periods (p < .001), levels of TP, GLU (p < .001), and globulin (p < .05), villus height (VH) (p < .001), and villus surface area (p < .01) and reduced S. typhimurium count (p < .001). Broilers fed YCW and challenged with C. perfringens exhibited improved FCR during grower and overall periods, EPEF during all experimental periods, liveability, GLU level, and VH (p < .001). In conclusion, dietary supplementation of YCW could ameliorate the harmful impacts of disease challenges on the growth efficiency of broilers.