Criteria for lactic acid bacteria screening to enhance silage quality

Abstract

The main challenge of ensiling is conserving the feed through a fermentative process that results in high nutritional and microbiological quality while minimizing fermentative losses. This challenge is of growing interest to farmers, industry and research and involves the use of additives to improve the fermentation process and preserve the ensiled material. Most studies involved microbial additives; lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been the focus of much research and have been widely used. Currently, LABs are used in modern and sustainable agriculture because of their considerable potential for enhancing human and animal health. Although the number of studies evaluating LABs in silages has increased, the potential use of these microorganisms in association with silage has not been adequately studied. Fermentation processes using the same strain produce very different results depending on the unique characteristics of the substrate, so the choice of silage inoculant for different starting substrates is of extreme importance to maximize the nutritional quality of the final product. This review describes the current scenario of the bioprospecting and selection process for choosing the best LAB strain as an inoculant for ensiling. In addition, we analyse developments in the fermentation process and strategies and methods that will assist future studies on the selection of new strains of LAB as a starter culture or inoculant.

Effects of Bacillus subtilis and its metabolites on corn silage quality

“…The different results observed are due to the different species and even strains inoculated in the silages (Carvalho et al . 2020). The performance of enzymes is influenced by the composition of the product (combination of different types of enzymes), the composition of the substrate (forage), the dose applied and the conditions of the performance medium such as pH and temperature (Ying et al .…”

Microbiota succession during aerobic stability of maize silage inoculated with Lentilactobacillus buchneri NCIMB 40788 and Lentilactobacillus hilgardii CNCM‐I‐4785

“…Inoculation of the forage by lactic acid bacteria improves both the fermentation process and aerobic stability (Muck et al, 2018). The selection of highly competitive strains (Carvalho et al, 2020) can improve the production of lactic acid as well as that of other organic acids able to inhibit the proliferation of undesirable fungi (Guimarães et al, 2018). Driehuis et al (1999) observed that strains of Lentilactobacillus buchneri ( Lactobacillus buchneri (Zheng et al, 2020)) were able to degrade lactic acid into acetic acid and 1,2‐propanediol (Oude Elferink et al, 2001), which could then be metabolized into propionic acid (Krooneman et al, 2002).…”

Lactic acid bacteria strains selected from fermented total mixed rations improve ensiling and in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics of corn stover silage

“…In contrast, obligately heterofermentative LAB are mainly used to improve aerobic stability due to the production of acetic acid and propionic acid, which has an antifungal effect [1]. The phylogenetic relationships among the validated species in the current study, the main LABs [26] that have been evaluated as silage inoculants, and the LABs in CSI are shown in Fig. 3.…”