Inoculation of Lactobacillus buchneri alone or with Bacillus subtilis and total losses, aerobic stability, and microbiological quality of sunflower silage.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of inoculation ofLactobacillus buchneri(L. buchneri) alone or withBacillus subtilis(B. subtilis) on gas and effluent losses, chemical composition,in vitrodigestibility of nutrients, aerobic stability, and microbiological quality of sunflower silage. A randomized experimental design was used, which contained 3 treatments, each one included 15 mini-silos. Mini-silos were distributed to the following treatments: (1) Control (CON), without inoculants; (2)L. buchnerialone (LB), inoculation at 2.6 × 1010 cfu/g; and (3)L. buchneriwithB. subtilis(LB + BS), inoculation at 2.6 × 1010 cfu/g and 1 × 109 cfu/g withL. buchneriandB. subtilis, respectively. Treatments were applied at 2 g/t of fresh forage ensiled. Silages with microbial inoculants had lower DM content, and higherin vitrodigestibility of DM and neutral detergent fibre than CON. Inoculants decreased the number of aerobic bacteria, mould, and yeast, and increased the counts of lactic acid bacteria in sunflower silage.L. buchneriexhibited positive effects on aerobic stability,in vitrodigestibility of nutrients and decreased the counts of mould and yeast, but did not show a synergistic effect withB. subtilison sunflower silage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]