Evaluation of chitosan and microbial inoculants on aerobic stability and fermentative profile pearl millet, corn and sorghum silages

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of microbial inoculants, chitosan, and blend (microbial inoculants and chitosan) on chemical composition, in vitro degradability, fermentative profile, losses, aerobic stability, and microorganism counts of corn, pearl millet and sorghum silages. A randomised block design was used in a factorial arrangement of 3 × 4. Three crops (pearl millet, corn and sorghum) and four additives: Control (without additive), 2 g of microbial inoculants (for ton of forage), 10 g/kg chitosan per kg of ensiled material, and blend (chitosan [5 g/kg] plus microbial inoculants [2 g/ton forage]), with five replicates per treatment. Chitosan increases the CP levels of silages and improves the in vitro degradability of DM in sorghum silage. The microbial inoculants reduced the pH in pearl millet, corn and sorghum silages (P < 0.001). The additives affected (P < 0.05) the aerobic stability of silages throughout the evaluation period. However, when evaluating the chitosan, the average temperature of the pearl millet and corn silages remained stable for a longer period. Chitosan improved the nutritional quality of sorghum silage. Chitosan-treated silages pearl millet and corn silages show great efficiency in aerobic stability due to antifungal activity. The microbial inoculants show reduced gas losses compared to chitosan.

KEYWORDS:

• Antimicrobial
• air exposure
• chitin
• conservation
• fermentative quality
• losses
• inoculant
• microorganism counts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical standards

The Ethics Committee on Animal Use of the Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense approved the experiment protocol 419/2023.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – FAPERJ (RJ, Brazil), grant numbers E-26/010.100974/2018 and E-26/010.002458/2019, and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).