PERFORMANCE, HAEMATOLOGY AND SERUM BIOCHEMISTRY OF RABBIT BUCKS FED SUPPLEMENTAL LEVELS OF Saccharomyces cerevisiae

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on growth performance, haematological and serum biochemical indices of rabbit bucks.  Eighteen bucks were used for the study. They were    assigned to three treatment groups with 6 bucks per treatment, replicated 3 times in a completely randomized design for twenty-eight (28) days. The bucks were allowed one week of acclimatization before the commencement of the study, during which they were fed commercial growers diets and forages. The bucks were fed a formulated ration supplemented with S. cerevisiae at 0.0, 0.3 and 0.6g respectively and were coded T1, T2 and T3 respectively. T1served as control. Growth parameters, haematological indices and serum chemistry were measured in the course of the study. The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS version 21, and means were separated using Duncan of same software. The results revealed that S. cerevisae did not have effect (p>0.05) on the growth parameters in the rabbit bucks. This study revealed that Saccharomyces cerevisiae did not have significant effect (p>0.05) in the PCV of bucks in the study as T1, T2 and T3 all had similar (p>0.05) PCV values of 39.00, 39.00 and 41.00% respectively. S. cerevisiae influenced (P<0.05) serum enzymes but did not have significant effect (p>0.05) on total protein, blood urea, ALT creatinine and glucose. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of S. cerevisiae at 0.60% did not have significant effect on growth parameters and most haematological and serum biochemical indices.