Annotation

Probiotics are еру living strains of microorganisms which enter the digestive tract of animals and optimize the quantitative and qualitative composition of microbiota, as well as have a stimulating effect on its metabolic activity.

Prebiotics are indigestible components of various species of microorganisms and a number of plants that selectively stimulate the microflora in different parts of the digestive tract of animals. Unlike probiotics, prebiotics have a stimulating effect on the metabolic activity of the microbiota present in the digestive tract, promoting its active growth and development. One of the important advantages of prebiotics is that they are resistant to gastric acidity, absorption, and hydrolysis by enzymes of the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants.

It is known that the use of pro- and prebiotic additives in the diets of ruminants, in particular sheeps, stimulates metabolic processes in the body and intensity of growth and development of animals. The present research conducted over the past three years has established the positive effect of domestically produced pro- and prebiotic preparations, made on the basis of baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, when added to sheeps' feed rations, on metabolic processes in the animal's body and their growth and development. However, the question of economic effectiveness of the specified yeast bioadditives' use in the diets of this species of animals remains unclear. Based on the above mentioned, the aim of this work is to establish the economic efficiency of using domestically produced pro- and prebiotic additives when they are added to the diets of young sheep.

The conducted studies established that introduction of the probiotic «Enzymactiv» and prebiotic «Inactivated dry glutathione yeasts» into the combined feeding of 11–12-months-old ewes during the winter stall period in amounts of 0.8 and 1.4 % by mass respectively, stimulates growth and development of animals. It also increases the efficiency of fodder use, allows to get an additional profit of 11–18 UAH per animal due to increase in the live weight. In general, on the basis of the obtained results, it is concluded that the use of the indicated yeast pro- and prebiotic supplements of domestic production as part of concentrated fodder for young ewes in the studied quantities is expedient and economically justified.