BACKGROUND:

It was already known that lactic acid bacteria (LAB), when used as silage additives were shown to improve several fermentation parameters, including aerobic stability. Previous experiments shown that inoculation with a combination of Lactobacillus buchneri NCIMB40788 and Lactobacillus hilgardii CNCM-I-4785, contributes to an increase in aerobic stability, compared to each strain inoculated independently.

OBJECTIVES:

To understand the mode of action of the combination on the LAB community, a fermentation-kinetic study was performed on corn. Four treatments, Control, Lb. buchneri, Lb. hilgardii, and a combination of the two strains, were fermented 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 days.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Corn silage inoculated by both strains had a lactate:acetate ratio of 0.59 after 64 days and a higher concentration of lactate than Lb. buchneri.
Leuconostocaceae represented the dominant population in the early phase (day 1), with roughly 50% abundance.
Lactobacillaceae dominated the succession from day 4 to 64.
These results confirm the increased fermentation efficiency when the two Lactobacillus strains are co-inoculated, with Hannaella as the main dominant fungi OTU.