Nutrients intake of lambs fed corn silage with or without microbial inoculants and sprayed with amylolytic enzyme

The aim of this research was to evaluate the nutrient intake of lambs fed silage or inoculated corn silage sprayed with amylolytic enzyme at feeding. The corn studied was the hybrid 2B710 Power Core (Dow AgroSciences), harvested with dry matter (DM) content between 33 and 35%. Treatments evaluated were: Control (Silage without inoculant and enzyme); Enzyme (corn silage with enzymes at feeding); Inoculant (corn silage inoculated with 1x10⁵ CFU Lactobacillus plantarum [MA 18/5U] and 1x10⁵ CFU Bacillus subtilis [AT553098]); Enzyme and Inoculant (corn silage inoculated with 1x10⁵ CFU Lactobacillus plantarum [MA 18/5U] and 1x10⁵ CFU Bacillus subtilis [AT553098] sprayed with enzyme at feeding). Both inoculants were diluted in distilled water and sprayed on the forage during filling of silos. The enzyme alpha-amylase from Aspergillus oryzae (Amaize, Alltech Inc.) was added at the time of feed delivery and applied a rate of 2 g/kg DM of total diet. Forty non-castrated male lambs (Texel*Dorper), with average initial body weight of 23.9 kg were used. Animals were previously adapted for 15 days. The diets consisted of 40% corn silage and 60% concentrate (ground corn, soybean meal, urea and mineral supplement). The diet was balanced to promote daily gain of 250g (NRC, 2007). The intakes of DM, organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), gross energy (GE) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) were evaluated. The data were analyzed according to randomized block design using a factorial 2 (uninoculated silage and inoculated with L. plantarum and Bacillus subtilis) x 2 (silage sprayed or not with alpha-amylase) with ten replicates. All data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS and the differences among means were determined using the PDIFF, which differentiates means based on Fisher?s F-protected least significant difference test. Significance was declared at P < 0.05. The DM, OM, CP, EE and GE intakes were not affected (P > 0.05) by the inoculation of silage and the enzyme addition. However, the lambs fed inoculated corn silage showed higher (P < 0.05) NDF intake compared with animals fed control silage (266.0 vs. 244.8 and g/d, respectively). The use of amylase sprayed on corn silage at feed delivery did not affect the nutrient intake by lambs, but the inoculation of L. plantarum and B. subtilis in corn silage provided greater NDF intake.