Effect of different bacterial agents on fermentation quality and microbial community of pigeon pea silage

Abstract

Despite pigeon pea being an important feed resource globally, very few reports have studied the application of bacterial agents in pigeon pea silage, thereby limiting the development and utilization of pigeon pea silage in animal husbandry. This study aimed to investigate how three bacterial agents affected the chemical composition, fermentation quality, and microbial community of the pigeon pea silage. Chopped pigeon pea was subject to the following treatments: Control [no additive], MFA [Bacillus, Lactobacillus, yeast; 5 g·kg-1 fresh weight (FW)], HECBEP [Bacillus, lactobacillus, yeast, enzymes; 1 g·kg-1 FW] and BFFA [Bacillus, Lactobacillus, yeast; 4 g·kg-1 FW]. After analyzing the chemical composition, fermentation quality, and microbial community of the silage post 30 days of ensiling, the bacterial agents were found to improve the quality of pigeon pea silage. Notably, the BFFA group showed higher dry matter (DM) content, lower pH, and the higher ratio of ammonia nitrogen·total nitrogen-1 (AN·TN-1 ) contents as compared to the MFA, HECBEP, and control group. Additionally, the microbial analysis and Spearman correlation analysis demonstrated that the application of bacteria agent BFFA increased the microbial community richness, Lactobacillus abundance, Firmicutes abundance, and decreased the Proteobacteria abundance. Therefore, these results suggest that bacterial agent BFFA could be recommended to be applied in pigeon pea for high-quality silage production.