The survival of silage bacteria in the intestine was evaluated by identifying lactic acid bacteria in the feces of dairy cows given whole crop maize silage.

Abstract

One representative silage sample and three separate feces samples from dairy cows on three dairy farms in Hua Bei, China and three dairy farms in Kyushu, Japan were collected to evaluate the survival of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in whole crop maize silage in the guts of dairy cows. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis were used to analyze the bacterial community makeup. All bunker-made corn silage samples, independent of dairy farm or sampling location, contained Lactobacillus acetotolerans. There were eight different LAB species found in the maize silage samples, but only three of them seemed to survive digestion: L. acetotolerans, L. pontis, and L. casei. Silage and feces L. acetotolerans populations were 106-7 and 103-4 copies/g, respectively, suggesting that competition in this niche may be tough and the population may drastically decline throughout the digestion process, even for the LAB species demonstrating possible survival in the gut. Because even surviving species might experience a significant population drop during digestion, it may be challenging for silage LAB to survive in the stomach of silage-fed dairy cows.