Diversity of a stable enrichment culture which is useful for silage inoculant and its succession in alfalfa silage.

Alfalfa is a kind of forage that is difficult to ensile for good quality. Therefore, inoculants are always used to enhance the preservation of alfalfa silage. Through continuous restricted subcultivation, a lactic acid bacteria community (Al2) was selected from well-fermented alfalfa silage, which sharply decreased the pH level and produced a large amount of lactic acid. The adding of Al2 to alfalfa at ensiling resulted in a more rapid drop in pH and higher levels of lactic acid, and it also reduced the ammonia-nitrogen content significantly (P < 0.01). Plate isolation, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and the construction of a 16S rRNA gene clone library were used to identify the composition diversity of the Al2 community; seven strains were detected in the community, the predominant strain belonging to Lactobacillus plantarum. Samples of alfalfa silages of duration 0, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 30 days were studied with DGGE analysis. The DGGE band patterns of Al2-treated and non inoculated were rather different, and the components of Al2 were the dominant bacteria in Al2-treated silages, especially L. plantarum, while Pediococcus pentosaceaus was predominant in naturally fermented alfalfa silage.