ABSTRACT
A probiotic yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was incorporated in basal diet prepared with fish meal, soybean meal, groundnut oil cake, corn flour, tapioca flour, egg albumin, cod liver oil and vitamin Bcomplex, at four different concentrations (10g, 20g, 30g and 40g kg-1) and fed to Macrobrachium rosenbergii post larvae (PL) for 90 days. The effect of this probiotic incorporation on the growth and survival performances, concentration of protein, amino acid, carbohydrate and lipid, and energy utilization was found to be significantly (P<0.05) higher at 40g kg-1 followed by 30g, 20g and 10g kg-1. 40g kg-1 S. cerevisiae incorporation was found to be established the highest rate of colony formation, 234x10-4 cfu (colony formation units). Actually, presence of Bacillus spp., Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas spp., Escherichia coli, Streptococcus spp., and Klebsiella pneumoniae were deducted in water medium and the PL gut of control group. There is a general belief that Pseudomonas spp. and K. pneumonia are pathogenic to prawns. The establishment of S. cerevisiae colony in the gut of experimental PL has eradicated these pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, it is suggested that establishment of S. cerevisiae colony has led to better growth, survival and biochemical constituents in M. rosenbergii PL. Thus, S. cerevisiae could be taken as a useful probiotic in M. rosenbergii culture.