ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Moisture-Driven Shifts in the Fermentation Characteristics and Microbial Community of Alfalfa Silage Treated with Different Additives
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China
- 2China agricultural university, Beijing, China
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Understanding the bacterial ecosystem changes in anaerobic fermentation of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) could provide a clearer insight into how the moisture contents and additives affect the fermentation characteristics, chemical composition of alfalfa silage. The alfalfa was harvested at budding stage, moisture contents were 78%, 68% and 58%. The treatments were control (CK), commercial Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (CL) and screened L. plantarum (LP, 1×106 cfu/g FW), and propionic-acid (P, 6 mL/kg FW). The results showed that adding CL, LP, and P were significantly reduced pH, NH3-N content, and showed lower relative abundance of Enterococcus at moisture contents 78% and 68%, increased LA, DM content, and showed lower relative abundance of Lactobacillus. Adding CL and LP significantly reduced the pH, NH3-N content and Enterococcus, increased Lactobacillus at moisture content 58%. Functional prediction suggested that additives could improve the Metabolism function of alfalfa silage. Carbohydrate metabolism, Starch and sucrose metabolism of the LP treatment group suggested highest proportion. Lactobacillus and Sphingomonas were negatively correlated with pH, positively correlated with LA and Flieg’s; Enterococcus, Weissella, Leuconostoc, and Enterobacter positively correlated with pH. In conclusion, no wilting was not conducive to alfalfa anaerobic fermentation, appropriate reducing the moisture content was beneficial for enhancing the effectiveness of additives in promoting alfalfa fermentation.
Keywords: Additives, Alfalfa silage, bacterial community, Fermentation characteristics, Moisture contents
Received: 12 Dec 2025; Accepted: 11 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 RUN, Wu, Sun, Yu, Jia, Basigalup and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guoliang Wang
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