Effect of chitosan on the preservation quality of sugarcane silage

Abstract

AbstractWe aimed to evaluate the effects of chitosan and microbial inoculant addition to sugarcane silage fermentation, gas and effluent losses, chemical composition, in situ dry matter (DM), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) degradation and aerobic stability. A completely randomized design with four treatments (n = 40) was performed. It was arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial scheme with chitosan [0 and 6 g/kg of sugarcane DM—1.66 g/kg of natural matter (NM)] and microbial inoculant (0 and 8 mg/kg on NM). Each g of inoculant contained 3.9 × 1010 UFC/g of Pediococcus acidilactici and 3.75 × 1010 UFC/g of Propionibacterium acidicipropionici. The addition of microbial inoculant increased lactic acid concentration in silos treated with chitosan. Furthermore, chitosan increased pH and tended to increase acetic acid of silage. In contrast, the inoculant decreased pH and acetic acid, besides increasing ethanol concentration. As chitosan addition increased DM recovery, inoculant addition decreased it. Chitosan decreased NDF and acid detergent fibre (ADF) level and increased DM degradation, while inoculant decreased DM content, DM and NDF degradation. In addition, chitosan improved the aerobic stability only in non‐inoculated silos. Thus, chitosan has a positive effect on silage fermentation, reducing fermentative losses, and improving silage chemical composition and degradation. Conversely, the addition of microbial inoculant negatively affected silage DM recovery, chemical composition, and its association with chitosan decreased the aerobic stability when compared to the exclusive use of chitosan.