To improve the nutritional efficiency of ruminants and promote well-being in a natural and effective manner, the use of additives such as homeopathic products and yeast has been increasingly incorporated into diets, especially in grazing systems.

To evaluate the effects of homeopathic products and yeast on the performance of Pantaneira cows maintained in rotational grazing on Mombaça grass in the Pantanal, Brazil.

Sixty cows were assigned to a completely randomized design with four treatments and 15 replicates. The treatments were: CTL: control (without additives); HOM: homeopathic (4 g/kg Entero 100, 4 g/kg Figotonus, and 4 g/kg Convert H); YEA: yeast (24 g/kg Saccharomyces cerevisiae); and HY: homeopathic + yeast (4 g/kg Entero 100, 4 g/kg Figotonus, 4 g/kg Convert H + 24 g/kg S. cerevisiae). The variables measured included forage and supplement intake, diet digestibility, weight gain, and feed conversion. Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Tukey and Duncan tests, with a significance level set at 5%.

Cows in the HY treatment group showed higher average daily gains and better feed conversion compared to the CTL treatment (p ≤ 0.05). They exhibited higher digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, and ether extract, as well as higher levels of total digestible nutrients and digestible energy (p ≤ 0.05).

The inclusion of 4 g/kg Entero 100, 4 g/kg Figotonus, 4 g/kg Convert H, and 24 g/kg S. cerevisiae improved nutrient digestibility, body weight gain and feed conversion in Pantaneira cows.

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because it is unpublished original research. However, they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

All authors contributed to the conception and design of the study. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Leandra da Silva Florentino, Mariana Santos, and Daniele Portela de Oliveira Torgan. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Leandra da Silva Florentino, Marcus Vinícius Morais de Oliveira, Evellyn Richelly Ferreira da Silva, Dalton Mendes de Oliveira, Dirce Ferreira Luz, and Fernando Miranda de Vargas Júnior, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Received: 29 August 2024

Accepted: 28 October 2024

Article published online:
17 March 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany