Microbial community structure, co‐occurrence network and fermentation characteristics of woody plant silage

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Feed shortage is a factor restricting animal production in the tropics, therefore how to use natural woody plant resources as animal feed is an important strategy.RESULTS: Under the dual stress of an anaerobic and acidic environment, the microbial response during the fermentation of paper mulberry (PM) silage was found to be sensitive. The Gram-negative bacteria and mould died, and the dominant microbial community rapidly shifted to Gram-positive bacteria, resulting in a large reduction in microbial diversity and abundance. Exogenous bran additives interfered with the stress effects of the woody silage environment. Wheat bran (WB) accelerated the response of microorganisms to the anaerobic stress, and lactic acid bacteria became the dominant microbial community, thereby enhancing the lactic acid fermentation of silage, affecting the metabolic pathways of microorganisms, and improving the flavour and quality of the silage. Addition of rice bran made Enterobacter and Clostridium species quickly respond to the stress of the silage environment and become the predominant bacterial groups. In particular, anaerobic and spore-forming Clostridium species showed a strong tolerance to the silage environment, leading to butyric acid fermentation and protein degradation of the silage, and reducing its fermentation quality.CONCLUSION: The PacBio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology accurately revealed the microbial cooccurrence network and fermentation mechanism of silage. Our results indicate that PM can be used in combination with WB to prepare high-quality silage for animal production.

Fermentation Profiles, Bacterial Community Compositions, and Their Predicted Functional Characteristics of Grass Silage in Response to Epiphytic Microbiota on Legume Forages

“…According to the results in bacterial compositions on the genus level, it may be because the undesirable genus Hafnia-Obesumbacterium in IRRC-3 accounted for a large proportion in the bacterial community, resulting in a relatively homogenous community of bacteria. This was different from the results of Du et al (2021) , who found that the lowest alpha diversity was observed in the quality silage due to the large proportions of beneficial microorganisms. Hence, the alpha diversity indices cannot be directly used as a judgment to assess the silage quality, and more attention should be paid to the specific bacterial community compositions and their metabolites.…”

Influence of Various Additives On The Fermentation Quality And Bacterial Community of High-Moisture Whole-Plant Quinoa Silage

“…High crude protein content, coupled with the high biomass production, suggests that WPQ can be used as a high-protein source for livestock feed. It is generally considered that the ideal moisture range for ensiling is 600-700 g/kg FM since such a moisture can maintain the vigorous growth of LAB as well as prevent the undesirable clostridial fermentation (Du et al 2021). However, Moser (1995) reported that the stems dried 10 to 15 times slower than the grass leaves.…”

“…The Shannon indice are used to measure bacterial diversity, whereas Chao1, ACE indices and OTUs number are measures of species richness. Generally, considerable reductions in bacterial diversity and species richness are expected to occur during successful ensiling because complex microbial communities in fresh materials will be replaced by the development of LAB (Du et al 2021). However, ensiled WPQ had comparable or increased bacterial diversity compared with the fresh WPQ sample.…”

Hybrid Broussonetia papyrifera Fermented Feed Can Play a Role Through Flavonoid Extracts to Increase Milk Production and Milk Fatty Acid Synthesis in Dairy Goats

“…The leaves of hybrid B. papyrifera have a high protein content of which exceeds 20% and can be used directly as livestock feeds or as a raw material for a total mixed ration (TMR) ( 21 ). Now, by making hybrid B. papyrifera fermented feed, it can not only preserve a large amount of vitamins, but also make it taste sour, sweet and mellow ( 22 ). It has been reported that flavone extracted from alfalfa and hybrid B. papyrifera are plant secondary metabolites with many functions, such as pigmentation, antimicrobial activity and antioxidant activity ( 23 , 24 ).…”