Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Animal Feed Science and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anifeedsci In-field poultry tests to evaluate efficacy of bioformulation consisting of enzymes and yeast biomass Gayatri Suresh a , Daniel Ubaldo Santos c , Tarek Rouissi a , Krishnamoorthy Hegde a , Satinder Kaur Brar a,b, *, Youcef Mehdi d , Stephane Godbout e , Younes Chorfi f , Antonio Avalos Ramirez g a Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Centre - Eau Terre Environnement, 490, Rue de la Couronne, Québec, QC, G1K 9A9, Canada b Department of Civil Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, North York, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada c Ingeniería en industrias Alimentarias. Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Perote (ITSPe) Km 2.5 Carretera Federal Perote – México, Col. Centro Perote, Veracruz, C.P. 91270, Mexico d Département des Sciences Animales, 2425, Rue de l'Agriculture, local 4305, Université Laval, G1V 0A6, Québec, Québec, Canada e Institut de recherche et de développement en agroenvironnement, 2700 rue Einstein, Québec, G1P 3W8, Canada f Université de Montréal, Département de biomédecine vétérinaire, 3200 Sicotte, St-Hyacinthe, Québec J2S 2M2, Canada g Centre National en Électrochimie et en Technologie Environnementales Inc., 2263, Avenue du Collège, Shawinigan, Québec G9N 6V8, Canada ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Enzymes S. cerevisiae Broiler performance Serum biochemistry Intestine histology Cecal microflora ABSTRACT A novel bioformulation comprising of spray-dried enzymes and Saccharomyces cerevisiae biomass was evaluated in the field for its efficacy to improve broiler performance. A total of 360, one-day- old Cobb 500 male chicken were assigned randomly to four dietary treatments with 15 birds in each of six replicates the dietary treatments were basal diet (T1), basal diet + bioformulation (T2), basal diet + bacitracin (T3) and basal diet + bioformulation + bacitracin (T4). At the end of 35 days, body weight gain was found to be significantly higher for the bioformulation as compared to the other three groups. There was no significant difference in feed conversion ratio and mortality amongst the four groups. For the histological study, T2 was found to have the highest villus height/crypt depth ratio. Bioformulation supplementation decreased serum cho- lesterol and maintained normal liver and kidney function. The bioformulation was also found to promote the growth of beneficial fermentative bacteria (Butyricoccus, Lactobacillus, and Streptococcus) in the poultry ceca. Hence, bioformulation inclusion was shown to have a sig- nificant effect on broiler weight gain, serum biochemistry, and composition of the cecal micro- flora, and has the potential be developed as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. 1. Introduction The ability of feed antibiotics to increase poultry productivity and improve broiler performance was discovered almost eighty years ago, and since then, they have been used extensively in poultry production. The use of antibiotic feed additives (AFAs) at sub- therapeutic levels (less than 200 g per ton of feed for more than two weeks) has been shown to improve body weight, feed conversion, and consequently, cost efficiency in broilers (Cervantes, 2012; Diaz-Sanchez et al., 2015). However, the indiscriminate use of AFAs led to the selection and wide-spread dissemination of drug resistance in the environment, which was followed by the withdrawal of https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2020.114398 Received 5 February 2019; Received in revised form 20 November 2019; Accepted 7 January 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Centre - Eau Terre Environnement, 490, Rue de la Couronne, Québec, QC, G1K 9A9, Canada. E-mail address: satinder.brar@ete.inrs.ca (S. Kaur Brar). Animal Feed Science and Technology xxx (xxxx) xxxx 0377-8401/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Gayatri Suresh, et al., Animal Feed Science and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2020.114398