The amount of lactic acid bacteria in fermented natural lactic acid bacteria liquids prepared with varying sucrose inclusion at different incubation periods

Abstract

Characterization of lactic acid bacteria that naturally occurs during silage formation is important for determining the quality of silage feeds which are required in terms of meeting the need for high quality roughage in cattle breeding. In this study, the aim was to determine the total lactic acid bacteria (LAB) count and pH values of fermented natural LAB liquids as a result of different levels of sucrose addition as microbial silage additive (1%, 3%, 5% and 10%) and different incubation periods (5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 days). Considering the incubation periods of LAB liquids, while the highest LAB count was obtained from the 10% sucrose added groups (3.7x1011, 2.6x1011 and 2.53x1012 colony forming unit (cfu/ml) at the 7, 9 and 13 days of incubation periods, the highest LAB count was obtained from the 5% sucrose supplemented group (9.13x1011cfu/ml) at the end of the 15-day incubation period. In general, for each incubation period, the total LAB counts in the obtained fluids increased due to the increase in the sucrose level (P<0.05). Depending on the increase in the incubation period, there was an increase in the total LAB counts in the 10% sucrose supplemented group, while a decrease in the total LAB counts occurred after a 15-day incubation period. In general, pH values decreased depending on the increasing with sucrose levels in each incubation period. Considering the pH values of the LAB liquids, there were no differences of pH values depending on the increase the incubation period from the 1% and 3% sucrose added groups (P<0.05). The pH values obtained from the 10% sucrose added group decreased with the increasing incubation periods. The highest pH value was obtained from the 1% sucrose group (4.49) during the 15-day incubation period, whereas the lowest pH value (3.78) was obtained from the 10% sucrose group in the same incubation period. Considering the LAB counts (1011-12cfu/ml) in the study, it has been evaluated that the obtained LAB liquids can be used as silage additives and it has a high potential of commercialization.