Turkey Pen Trials with Dietary Mannan Oligosaccharide: Meta-analysis, 1993-2003

Abstract

Turkey pen trial reports (1993-2003) from several countries were analyzed statistically to determine effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. boulardii yeast outer cell wall mannan oligosccharide (MOS; Bio-Mos®, Alltech, Inc., Nicholasville, Kentucky USA) supplemented diets versus negative control (nCON) or antibiotic-supplemented positive control (pCON) diets. Criteria for selecting studies were: 1) pen trial, 2) written report, 3) MOS fed for entire study period, 4) negative and/or positive control, 5) antibiotic stated (for positive control), 6) replication and 7) gender, final age and body weight (BWT) given. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) and mortality (MORT) were used when reported. Typical MOS supplemental levels were 0.10% continuous, or 0.10 and 0.05% or 0.20, 0.10 and 0.05% in step-down programs. Results were averaged "by treatments" (all comparisons) and "by trials" (comparisons averaged by trial before analysis) using Paired T-test to compare nCON and pCON means with corresponding MOS means. Slightly different answers but similar patterns emerged by these methods. Considering averages by trials, MOS diets gave the following relative changes compared to nCON diets: BWT, +2.09% (P = 0.010); FCR, -1.47% (P = 0.172); and MORT, -25.13% (P = 0.016). Relative changes in live performance using MOS diets compared to pCON diets were: BWT, -0.56% (P = 0.157); FCR, -0.26% (P = 0.502); and MORT, -15.53% (P = 0.202). The MOS diets significantly improved BWT and MORT compared to nCON diets. The mortality-lowering effect of supplemental MOS was its strongest attribute. The MOS diets gave statistically similar live performance to pCON diets.