Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a linear high-molecular-weight polysaccharide with useful biomedical applications. Streptococcus zooepidemicus, a typical HA-producing bacterium, requires an animal-derived nitrogen source such as tryptone, peptone or sheep blood as a nutrient. Sixteen non-animal-derived (NAD) nitrogen sources were tested as a replacement for the expensive animal-derived nitrogen sources, which may have safety issues. Among the sixteen tested NAD nitrogen sources, a yeast-derived nitrogen source (YE 0251) showed the highest HA productivity, which was equivalent to the control HA production medium containing tryptone in a 5-L jar and in 3,000-L industrial fermentations. In the 3,000-L fermentation, YE 0251 increased cell mass (dry cell weight) and HA production by 11% and 8%, respectively, compared with the control HA production medium. The fmal specific volumetric productivity (0.41 g/L h) was improved by about 70% after reducing the fermentation time from 20 h to 12 h, compared to the conventional production medium.