Saccharomyces cerevisiae diet supplementation influences haematological parameters in healthy steers

Intensive farm conditions, overcrowding and limited individual space, high grain feed, transportation, exposure to pathogens and high productivity are several stressors that can threaten animal welfare and the search for different tools to help maintain the balance between high farm productivity and animal welfare is increasingly well established. The effects of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae diet supplementation on cattle growth performance were widely investigated, but few studies debated about the health status of steers. For this purpose, two groups of Charolaise steers were equally divided according to the type of administered food: the control group (CG), which received the base diet without yeast supplement and the treatment group (YG), which each animal received the base diet with 5g of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae supplementation (YS) per day. From each group, blood samples were collected at three different time point, before (t0), after 21 (t1) and 42 (t2) days of the start of the study to evaluate changes on haematological parameters, including red blood cells (RBC), haematocrit (HCT), haemoglobin (HGB), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), white blood cells (WBC), neutrophils (NEU), lymphocytes (LYM), monocytes (MONO), eosinophils (EOS), basophils (BASO), and platelets (PLT). According to two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), some haematological parameters including RBC (P<0.01; F(₂,₁₁₆)=9.08), HGB (P<0.001; F(₂,₁₁₆)=16.17), HCT (P<0.001; F(₂,₁₁₆)=9.67), MCV (P<0.05; F(₂,₁₁₆)=29.42), MCH (P<0.001; F(₂,₁₁₆)=43.90), MCHC (P<0.05; F(₂,₁₁₆)=44.27), MONO (P<0.001; F(₂,₁₁₆)=15.34), EOS (P<0.001; F(₂,₁₁₆)=8.24), BASO (P<0.01; F(₂,₁₁₆)=43.15) and PLT (P<0.001; F(₂,₁₁₆)= 15.76) showed a significant effect of time and group. Results gathered in the current study suggest that Saccharomyces cerevisiae diet supplementations do not have a significant impact on the health status of cattle.