Aims: To identify whether the supplement of anaerobic fungi isolates with cellulolytic activities accelerates the silage fermentation.
Methods and results: Three fungal isolates with the highest cellulolytic activities among 45 strains of anaerobic fungal stock in our laboratory were selected and used as silage inoculants. The rice straw (RS) was ensiled for 10, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days with four treatments of anaerobic fungi derived from the control (no fungus), Piromyces M014 (isolated from the rumen of the Korean native goat), Orpinomyces R001 (isolated from the duodenum of Korean native cattle) and Neocallimastix M010 (isolated from the guts of termites), respectively. The silages inoculated with pure strains of fungi showed a higher fungal population (P < 0.05) when compared to the control silage. In situ ruminal DM disappearance of RS silage (RSS) was improved with fungal treatment. SEM observation showed live fungal cells inoculated in RS could survive during the ensiling process. Overall, this study indicated that the inoculation of anaerobic fungi decreased the cell wall content of the RSS and increased in situ dry matter disappearance.
Conclusions: The supplementation of anaerobic fungi isolates to RSS as a silage inoculant improves the RSS quality.
Significance and impact of the study: This is the first study showing the potential application of supplement of anaerobic fungi isolated from the guts may be applied industrially as an alternate feed additive that improves the silage quality.
Keywords: DM degradation; anaerobic fungi; rice straw; scanning electron microscopy; silage fermentation.
© 2014 The Society for Applied Microbiology.