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

Table 2 Fecal pH, fecal concentration of lactic acid, ammonia, short-chain fatty acids, and branched-chain fatty acids of cats fed with increasing levels of YAM

	Diets^c
Item	CD	SEM^d	YAM 0.3	SEM^d	YAM 0.6	SEM^d	p-value
pH	6.00	0.14	5.94	0.12	6.08	0.11	0.756
Lactic acid, μmol/kg of DM	1.36^a	0.34	3.42^b	0.84	4.24^b	1.01	0.004
Ammonia, μmol/kg of DM	140.26	21.87	133.75	10.85	163.33	12.76	0.286
Short-chain fatty acids, μmol/kg of DM
Acetic acid	66.82	11.49	92.92	12.80	66.59	10.15	0.216
Propionic acid	32.47	6.19	27.08	4.37	30.38	5.23	0.782
Butyric acid	24.50	7.41	40.29	12.30	24.84	5.69	0.545
Total short-chain fatty acids	123.79	22.26	160.29	21.05	121.81	14.57	0.329
Branched-chain fatty acids, μmol/kg of DM
Valeric acid	9.86	2.67	14.40	2.70	12.63	2.79	0.514
Isobutyric acid	2.31	0.32	2.30	0.41	2.71	0.34	0.694
Isovaleric acid	2.39^b	0.50	1.85^a	0.25	2.98^b	0.47	0.014
Total branched-chain fatty acids	15.10	3.35	17.06	2.99	16.50	3.08	0.673

^a–b Values in the same row with different superscripts differ significantly
^cDiets: 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)
^dSEM standard error of the mean

ISSN: 1746-6148