Effects of bacterial inoculants on microbial community, mycotoxin contamination, and aerobic stability of corn silage infected in field by toxigenic fungi during aerobic exposure

This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of inoculants on the microbial community and mycotoxins contamination during aerobic exposure of corn silage. Whole-crop corn infected with or without mycotoxigenic fungi were ensiled with Lactobacillus buchneri (LB, 1.0×10 6 cfu g − 1 fresh weight (FW)), Lactobacillus plantarum (LP, 1.0×10 6 cfu g − 1 FW), or LBLP at 1.0× 10 6 cfu g − 1 FW each. The higher concentration of AcA ( P  < 0.05) in LB and LBLP silages than C and LP of NFI silages. Fungal infection resulted in a larger increase of zearalenone (ZEN, P  = 0.01), fumonisin B 1 (FUB 1 , P  = 0.02), and fumonisin B 2 (FUB 2 , P  = 0.02). The RA of Issatchenkia in NFI was higher ( P  < 0.001) than FI silages, whereas the RA of Kazachstania ( P  < 0.001), Zygosaccharomyces ( P  = 0.047), and Candida ( P  = 0.025) in NFI were lower than these of FI silages. The aerobic stability was improved by the application of LB and LBLP as compared with C of NFI silages. The LB and LBLP had the potential to improve aerobic stability and alleviate mycotoxins contamination of non-fungal infected corn silages, but did not mitigate the negative effect of fungal infection in corn silages.