Impact of Co-Ensiling of Maize with Moringa oleifera on the Production of Greenhouse Gases and the Characteristics of Fermentation in Ruminants

Edwin Rafael Alvarado-Ramírez; Aristide Maggiolino; Mona M M Y Elghandour; Marco Antonio Rivas-Jacobo; Gilberto Ballesteros-Rodea; Pasquale De Palo; Abdelfattah Z M Salem

doi:10.3390/ani13040764

Impact of Co-Ensiling of Maize with Moringa oleifera on the Production of Greenhouse Gases and the Characteristics of Fermentation in Ruminants

Animals (Basel). 2023 Feb 20;13(4):764. doi: 10.3390/ani13040764.

Authors

Edwin Rafael Alvarado-Ramírez¹, Aristide Maggiolino², Mona M M Y Elghandour³, Marco Antonio Rivas-Jacobo¹, Gilberto Ballesteros-Rodea¹, Pasquale De Palo², Abdelfattah Z M Salem³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary, Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí, 78321 San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
² Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari A. Moro, 70010 Bari, Italy.
³ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, 50000 Toluca, Mexico.

Abstract

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the impact of maize co-ensiling with increasing percentages of MOL forage on the kinetics of biogas, methane (CH₄), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) production, as well as the characteristics of ruminal fermentation and CH₄ conversion efficiency, using steers (STI) and sheep (SHI) as inoculum sources. With the STI, the inclusion of MOL reduced (linear: p ≤ 0.0199; quadratic: p ≤ 0.0267) biogas production (mL g^-1 DM incubated and degraded), CH₄ (mL g^-1 DM degraded), CO (mL g^-1 DM degraded), and H₂S (mL g^-1 DM incubated and degraded), without affecting (p > 0.05) the parameters (b = asymptotic gas, c = rate of gas production and Lag = initial delay time before gas production) of CH₄ and H₂S, and the proportion and production of CH₄ per kg of dry matter (DM). In addition, with this inoculum, pH, and dry matter degradation (DMD) increased (linear: p ≤ 0.0060), and although short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and metabolizable energy (ME) decreased (linear: p < 0.0001; quadratic: p ≤ 0.0015), this did not affect (p > 0.05) the CH₄ conversion efficiency. Meanwhile, with the SHI, the inclusion of MOL only decreased (linear: p ≤ 0.0206; quadratic: p ≤ 0.0003) biogas per dry matter (DM) degraded and increased (linear: p ≤ 0.0293; quadratic: p ≤ 0.0325) biogas per DM incubated, as well as the production (mL g^-1 DM incubated and degraded and g^-1 kg DM) and proportion of CH₄, and CO per DM incubated and degraded. In addition, it did not impact (p > 0.05) on the CH₄ and H₂S parameters, and in the H₂S by DM incubated and degraded, and although it increased (linear: p ≤ 0.0292; quadratic: p ≤ 0.0325) the DMD, SCFA, and ME, it was inefficient (quadratic: p ≤ 0.0041) in CH₄ conversion. It is concluded that regardless of the percentage of MOL, the STI presented the highest values in the production of biogas, CH₄, H₂S, DMD, SCFA, and ME, and the lowest pH, so it turned out to be the most efficient in CH₄ conversion, while with the SHI only the highest production of CO and pH was obtained, and the lowest DMD, SCFA, and ME, so it was less efficient compared to STI.

Keywords: Zea mays L.; carbon monoxide; hydrogen sulfide; methane; ruminal fermentation; ruminants.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.