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Field Study of the Impact of Supplementation with Probiotic Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sc47-CNCM I-4407) on Reproductive Performance in Dairy Cows

Agriculture, and in particular farming of ruminants, is today raising not only serious challenges for society in terms of the environment and animal welfare, but also challenges to keep farming economic. The balance between productivity, quality and economic viability is constantly shifting. At the herd level, the farmer will first and foremost want to manage their diet to the best possible effect, which must be optimized for ruminants. This approach is effective in improving and managing production, ensuring much research and development has been carried out in this field.

Probiotic yeasts are used widely today in the diets of dairy cows with a high production potential. Various studies have researched the effects of live yeasts, in particular Saccharomyces cerevisiae, on digestion, metabolism and performance in dairy cows. The present study aimed at evaluating the beneficial effects of using probiotic yeast in dairy cattle farms as a means of improving the breeding performance of milking cows.

A group of 14 dairy cattle farms, with at least 40 dairy cows, was selected for the study, all of them using artificial insemination (AI) and that had not used probiotics in the two milking years preceding the study. On these farms, the lactating cows received probiotic yeast supplementation (5 g/cow/day, Actisaf®, Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sc47-CNCM I-4407, 1.1010 CFU/g, Phileo Lesaffre Animal Care, Marcq-en-Baroeul, France) over 13 months including a 4-week period of adaptation to the product and then the observation period lasting a full year. The analysis was therefore based on 2421 Holstein females inseminated with a total of 4230 doses of conventional Holstein semen at 14 farms over three consecutive years: the period of observation and the two preceding years stated as reference period.

Use of daily supplementation with probiotic yeast resulted in a significant improvement of 4 points on average in the success rate of artificial insemination and of 5 points in the success rate of first artificial insemination in multiparous dairy cows. The number of inseminations required to obtain a pregnancy was therefore reduced from 3.1 in the reference period to 2.7 in the probiotic yeast supplementation period (p = 0.007). In parallel, the fat and protein yield by these same animals tended to improve (+5%, p = 0.07) between these two periods, demonstrating that it is possible to combine milk performance and maintenance of an effective reproductive system.

In conclusion, this field study confirms the beneficial effects of optimizing the feed of dairy cows in production in order to improve their reproductive performance.

Article by Christine Julien, et al, from France.

Full access: http://t.cn/EGbBesE
Image by Creative Bureau of Advertising, from Flickr-cc.

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