Communities of fungi in grass silage, corn-cob-mix silage and the whole crop corn silageZbiorowiska grzybów w sianokiszonce, kiszonce z ziarna oraz kiszonce z całych roślin kukurydzy

Abstract

Summary Corn silage is one of the best roughage, for cattle feeding all year round. A high quality corn silage should be characterized by a pleasant sour smell, unchanged texture and colour of plant fragments, and the absence of pollution by fungi. In 2010 fungi colonizing three types of silage have been identified, with particular emphasis on: Penicillium spp., Aspergillus spp. and Fusarium spp. These three fungi species are known to produce mycotoxins toxic to humans and animals. The analysed substrates were: grass silage, corncob-mix (CCM) silage and the whole crop corn silage. The fungi were isolated most abundantly from the CCM silage and their species composition was most diverse there. In all three types of silage the yeast-like fungi predominated. Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp. were isolated most frequently from the CCM silage, whereas they were isolated in small numbers from the grass silage and the whole crop corn silage. Other fungi: Alternaria alternata, Trichoderma polysporum, Cladosporium herbarum, Rhizopus nigricans, Mucor hiemalis, Monascus spp. were isolated sporadically. The fungi of the genus Fusarium were not found in the tested silages.