Effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell wall addition on feed digestibility, fecal fermentation and microbiota and immunological parameters in adult cats

Table 1 Nutrient intake, fecal production, fecal score and apparent nutrient digestibility in cats fed with increasing levels of YAM

	Diets^†
Item	CD	SEM^‡	YAM 0.3	SEM^‡	YAM 0.6	SEM^‡	p-value
Intake, g/day
Dry matter	60.33	6.65	61.07	4.53	55.89	3.43	0.727
Organic matter	60.09	7.08	62.82	4.59	57.20	3.51	0.732
Crude protein	20.81	2.45	20.24	1.48	18.58	1.14	0.617
Acid-hydrolyzed fat	8.53	1.07	10.77	0.78	8.97	0.55	0.160
Crude fiber	1.13	0.14	1.48	0.10	1.41	0.08	0.109
Ash	3.67	0.46	4.67	0.34	4.55	0.24	0.187
Nitrogen-free extract	25.20	2.97	24.56	1.79	22.90	1.40	0.707
Fecal production
Fecal production, g/DM/d	7.22	1.01	9.10	0.74	7.87	0.44	0.808
Fecal score	4.41	0.24	4.67	0.15	4.55	0.24	0.628
Apparent nutrient digestibility, %
Dry matter	84.04	1.16	84.92	0.94	85.78	0.68	0.394
Organic matter	87.38	0.93	87.82	0.95	87.82	0.71	0.677
Crude protein	87.42	1.22	88.35	1.25	87.60	0.99	0.631
Acid-hydrolyzed fat	93.99	1.63	95.21	0.89	95.21	0.68	0.354
Crude fiber	14.60^a	3.56	27.11^b	3.85	33.79^b	4.25	0.013
Ash	43.28^a	2.85	50.10^b	1.12	53.55^c	1.09	< 0.001
Nitrogen-free extract	89.62	1.01	88.58	0.91	89.80	0.78	0.597
Gross energy, kcal/g	3.99^a	0.05	3.82^ab	0.05	3.71^b	0.04	0.033

^a,b,c Values in the same row with different superscripts differ significantly
^†Diets: CD (control diet); YAM 0.3 (control diet containing 0.3% yeast with active metabolites); YAM 0.6 (control diet containing 0.6% yeast with active metabolites)
^‡SEM standard error of the mean

ISSN: 1746-6148