Carcass Characteristics of West African Dwarf (Bucks) Fed Yeast and Lactic Acid Bacteria Fortified Diets

This study was conducted to determine the carcass characteristics and meat quality of bucks fed diets fortified with yeast and lactic acid bacteria. 30 West African Dwarf (WAD) bucks (8.50±1.59 kg) were allotted to six dietary treatments with five (5) animals per group in a complete randomized design. The treatments were: diet without antibiotics or probiotics (control D1), control + antibiotics (D2), control + 2.50 g yeast (D3), control + 5.00 g yeast (D4), control + 2.50 g yeast + lactobacillus acidophilus (D5) and control + 5.00 g yeast + lactobacillus acidophilus (D6), where D5 and D6 were fortified with Lactobacillus acidophilus at 1.00 x 1012 cfu/g each. At the end of the feeding trial, three animals per treatment were slaughtered after being starved for 18 hours. There was no significant difference in final body weight and average daily gain which ranged from 10.60 kg to 11.75 kg and 20.79 g/day to 28.29 g/day respectively. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in physical characteristics except for the rib eye area (REA) which was higher (P≤0.05) in D6 than D1, D4 and D5 (12.33 cm2 vs 7.67, 9.33 and 9.33 cm2) respectively. Brisket was influenced (P>0.05) with D3 (8.33%) lower than D5 (11.35%). Colour, marbling, temperature, water holding capacity (WHC) and pH at O and 1 hr were significantly different (P≤0.05) as a result of treatment effect. The meat cholesterol decreased (P<0.05) with increase in probiotics inclusion. These results showed that inclusion of yeast and Lactobacillus acidophilus even up to 5.00 g in the diet of WAD bucks impacted positively on the carcass characteristics and meat quality of bucks without any deleterious effect.