An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different levels of dried yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in diets about performance and intestinal morphology of piglets at initial phase. They used 280 piglets (females and castrated males) from genetic lines, weaned with 21 days of age, allocated in 20 pens in randomized design blocks, with 5 replications and 4 treatments (0, 5, 10 and 15% dried yeast addition). Samples of duodenum and jejunum of 3 piglets slaughtered at 45 days of age were collected from each treatment to study intestinal morphology. The increasing levels of dried yeast in rations did not affect significantly the weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion. In relation of duodenum and jejunum there was no significative effect (P>0.05) of dried yeast increased levels on villous height, crypt depth and villous crypt ratio. The results allowed to conclude that dried yeast can be added up to 15% in initial phase piglets diets.
dried yeast; morphology intestinal; nutrition; piglets
